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Americans really don’t appreciate how good we have it in terms of our pool of immigrants. Immigrants in America are awesome. Low crime, hard workers, values that mesh well with the native population. Even our “bad” immigrants commit crimes at the same rate as native whites and are much better behaved after adjusting for income.
https://siepr.stanford.edu/news/mythical-tie-between-immigration-and-crime
Some thoughts:
There are probably many factors specific to the US (and probably Canada too) that make this true, but the big ones are probably (a) geography and (b) extremely positive selection caused by various policies and reputation.
It’s hard to understand how badly informed most Americans are about our immigrants. Besides the data linked above my anecdotal interactions with blue collar Hispanic immigrants is unbelievably positive. My experience with white collar immigrants is that they’re just like me but with an accent. The most anti immigrant people seem to have had no interactions with immigrants as far as I can tell.
Besides the obvious “they’re taking our jobs” economic fallacy (immigration creates more demand for labor too), the whole “elites don’t mind immigration because immigrants don’t compete with them economically” is prima facie absurd. Have you seen the composition of google’s workforce? Other elite institutions?
US immigration is freaking awesome but Europeans should be careful about generalizing because everything in Europe seems set up to attract a much much worse pool of immigrants, from an ultra generous welfare state (real or imagined) to geographical proximity to regions with lot of emigrating bad hombres.
I am anti-immigrant and have had ample interactions with them. They are not just like you and me. If they were, why do they insist on speaking their native language in public? Why do I have to press 1 for English? Why do they wear their old culture's clothing? Why do they congregate in communities with their own instead of assimilating?
I can't imagine immigrating to another country and refusing to speak their language and wear their clothing. I'd be overcome with embarrassment and shame at such a flagrant display of disrespect and hostility to the country that was gracious enough to accept me in.
There are certainly many immigrants that assimilate, but it doesn't take many defectors to change the character of a community.
People who are pro-immigration keep using this bizarre line of argument that essentially amounts to "You think this bad thing is happening now, but it happened in the past, too!" ...As if we must think it was a good thing when it happened in the past? No, it was bad then and it's bad now. Do you get it yet?
The argument is that all "natives" were immigrants once. At the very least anti-immigrationists should then clarify that they want the specific current shade of "native".
But that statement does not entail either 1) that it was a good thing that the ancestors of current natives once immigrated; or 2) that further immigration is desirable.
No, but it does challenge the moral authority somewhat. I'm an immigrant to the US, so if I am unhappy at immigration (generally) then I am at least somewhat hypocritical. If I had the courage of my convictions I would go back to the UK.
Someone who thinks their ancestors moving to the US was wrong, but does not at least attempt to move back to their ancestral nation is similarly displaying some (lesser!) level of hypocrisy. Exactly the same way that communists are often challenged about engaging in capitalism while living in a capitalist culture. Or that Christians who think abortion is murder are challenged that they should really be overthrowing the government to prevent a new (in their eyes) Holocaust every year.
Now hypocrisy is not the be all and end all of course, most people do not sacrifice everything for their principles, because doing so has great costs. But rhetorically and morally it is an appropriate attack vector. Which is why it used all the time.
If you really had the courage of your convictions (and to clarify most people do not, including myself!) you would move (presumably) to Europe. The fact you do not, is evidence of a sort that you accept that principle can be traded off against other things. And if it can be traded off for you then it can be traded off for other people, including those currently immigrating that you wish would not.
In other words it is an argument that demonstrates your principle is not an absolute, but rather negotiable. And then (as per the old saw) you're just haggling over price. Which moves you into a kind of utilitarian trade off of cost vs benefit conversation. And most of those costs and benefits will be subjective. It's no longer about whether it is right or wrong, but how much, who and when. And your position is lost.
Furthermore for people who think the US is in pretty good shape now, the rebuttal can now simply be: "Yeah and it worked out pretty well then, so why do you think today will be different?" Now you have to defend a position which even most Conservatives today will reject, that Irish and Italian and German immigration made the country worse, when many of the people nominally on your side will be descended from said Irish, Italians and Germans. And it plays into Progressive talking points "You are absolutely correct, we SHOULD give the native peoples more say, because the colonization WAS wrong. Let's set up a First Nations Voice, pay reparations etc. etc."
That's the dichotomy and why many Conservative Americans aren't anti-immigration (even if they are anti-illegal immigration), because that would invalidate their own history of ancestors at Ellis Island or Plymouth Rock and so on and why the "nation of immigrants" rhetoric still has strong purchase on the right. The emotional valence (for someone proud of their country and history) of saying, "Yes my ancestors were morally wrong for moving to the US and seeking a better life" is a heavy one for most people. And feelings trump facts in my experience.
That plus the dichotomy of "Land of the Free" vs Slavery and Jim Crow et al, are two of the most powerful historical forces that shape both the left and the right in America in my view.
I'm an immigrant to the US as well. I understand the argument, but I don't think it's compelling. If I think the tax rate on my bracket should be higher, am I a hypocrite for not donating to the IRS? I don't think people are necessarily hypocrites for availing themselves of legal avenues to better their lives, even if they recognize that it would be better if policy were to change to preclude that option. This is one reason why I don't mistreat immigrants, even though I resent their presence and wish more than anything else that they weren't allowed in: they were following the law.
There's also the self-serving argument that I think my presence in the US actually decreases the amount of cultural change the US is going through as a result of immigration, just given how thoroughly Americanized I am compared to the median American (which is weighed down by the 14% who are foreign-born, and mostly not from Canada like me or the UK like you). But of course I'd say that, and of course you shouldn't believe me. It also doesn't matter.
The point is that a polity has the right to decide who can immigrate, and the failure of the founding stock to limit immigration to X,Y,Z groups does not compel the present polity to permit further immigration. And the fact that some people may be hypocrites or some people are unwilling to bite the bullet and say that their own Irish/Italian/German ancestors should have been forbidden to immigrate does not mean arguments against immigration - even voiced by those descendants of past immigration - are uncompelling.
The presence of an unrepentant thief who says, "thievery should be punished" is not a good argument against his proposition.
I do not believe this makes sense. If being Americanized does not refer to being most like the median American, then what is it exactly?
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