The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“A majority of Americans say they believe people who are trying to immigrate to the U.S. have ‘worse character’ than those who came 50 years, according to a new Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll.
“The big picture: In the poll of U.S. adults’ attitudes about immigration, many respondents expressed romanticism about the past and strong skepticism about it today—a contradiction historians say is rooted in myth and fantasy the nation’s immigrant past.
“The poll shows that current anti-immigrant sentiment is partly based on misconceptions about immigrants committing crimes and seeking welfare benefits, both of which are largely untrue.
“Reality check: Americans [in the past] had the same complaints about immigrants—that they reshape cities and don’t assimilate—as they do today., [says] ,Maria Christina Garcia. A Cornell University history professor and past president of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society.
“Garcia says many Americans today erroneously believe that previous generations of immigrants assimilated and the country was welcoming. The study of history doesn’t bear that out, she adds.
“Flashback: Immigrants, since the founding of the nation, have faced xenophobia and accusations that they wouldn’t blend in. Ben Franklin worried that immigrants would overwhelm America and change its most basic virtues . . . . Immigrants from Eastern Europe in the early 20th Century were accused of speaking too many languages and failing to abandon their old customs. — Exclusive Poll: Americans Are Critical of Today’s Immigrants, Russell Contreras. Axios, 4/30/24 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: It is not a “misconception” to say that immigrants use welfare at a higher rate than the native-born. The fact is that they do. As for committing crimes, a significant percentage of immigrants today are here illegally. Thus they are committing a crime.
These points aside, this article pushes a common claim of immigration advocates, namely that people in the past expressed concerns about immigration, just as people do today. Since the past concerns seem overstated today, we shouldn’t worry about the current ones being expressed.
An example given was the worry Ben Franklin had about German immigration. His fears didn’t come to pass, not because they were misguided, but because German immigration subsided. The criticisms of Eastern European immigrants, the article cites, were in fact valid. But the problems went away as those immigrants assimilated. A key point to understand, however, is that the sharp reduction of immigration in 1924 encouraged immigrants and their descendants to come out of their enclaves and join the national mainstream.
The statement that immigrants aren’t assimilating now is something to take seriously, even if past alarms were overstated. Today, we’ve had unrelenting mass immigration for more than 30 years with no letup in sight. Until that happens, assimilation will be an uphill climb. And making it even more difficult is that to a large extent, we don’t even insist on assimilation anymore. Indeed, many of our Woke elites oppose assimilation because it is “racist.”
There is a great deal to criticize about mass immigration. That’s true today, and it was true in the past.