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Notes -
Matt Yglesias posted on X an argument in favor of immigration (having trouble finding it now). The argument was basically “you like lasagna right? Well if we didn’t allow Italians to immigrate no lasagna. And now Italians are pretty indistinguishable from other Americans so clearly that will be the case with others such as Somalians. Think of the future lasagna equivalent you’d get with no cost since the immigrants will assimilate.”
Leave aside the HBD argument. It seems to me that one Matt and those who make this argument miss is the massively different technology that exists today that didn’t exist in yesteryear. If you left Italy in the late 1800s, you couldn’t easily get back routinely to see family (whereas now it’s maybe a days travel). You couldn’t FaceTime them at a whim. You couldn’t text message them. The populations were truly cut off.
It is likely harder to assimilate in the modern world where immigrant populations are not cut off as opposed to the old world. So pointing to historic examples of assimilation do not hold for today because the factors have changed. Now maybe you still think there will be assimilation for different reasons. But you need to make that argument. Comparing like and unlike however cannot be your argument.
I don’t think this is some kind of groundbreaking point but why would presumably smart people like Yglesias make such a sloppy argument? Maybe they aren’t smart. Maybe they don’t encounter enough arguments to the contrary. Or maybe they are propagandists. I can’t help but think repeating a catechism has value to building political unity even (perhaps especially if) it’s fake.
It's hard not to point at the God Shaped Hole in Yglesias' specific argument here.
When people point to the immigration "success" of Italians, Irish, Poles, Germans, Scandinavians, and Mexican and Central Americans of yesteryear, it's hard not to see the Pope in the background doing the Jeremiah Johnson nod of approval. Even for non-catholic groups, they were still Christian. That basic scaffolding is doing a lot of work; perhaps fueled by lasagna, I can't say.
@CrispyFriedBarnacales brings up the history of Jews in America below, and I think that's a really good argument against what Yglesias is trying to say here. Some Jews in America have fully assimilated. But there are dozens of communities that have not only no assimilated, they actively resist American ways of life to an extent that, I believe, is probably unconstitutional. How is Kiryas Joel, NY don't constantly fighting equal protection and/or discrimination cases?
I think it's harder to assimilate now because people are showing up with basic values structures that are either vastly different than even the most modernized (not progressive) pop culture American values or, more commonly, without a functional values system at all. If a new immigrant has the basic concept of "be a responsible member of the community" in place, the local society can gently pressure him or her to refine those to whatever particular style they want. But if people are showing up with nothing beyond "maximize personal utility" we're then in a situation of literally importing millions of game-theory defectors and free-riders.
I've seen some talking points from both left and right along the lines of "immigrants work so much harder! They take all the crappy jobs and they live jammed on top of each other!" Yeah, well, I don't want to be part of a society that has a median tending towards crappy jobs and over-code cohabitation. I like the idea of upskilling and of throwing automation efforts at the really dangerous jobs. I like the idea of a couple being able to afford their own - modest - home before they're 30 years old. People like to sneer at the white underclass because they're getting outcompeted by recent immigrants. To the extent that this is true (limited) it is only because a race to the bottom is happening and the undercutting of wages has led to a class level decline in standard of living.
This is not unique to them; there are FLDS owned towns that just blatantly violate the law all the time.
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