The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“With the 2024 presidential campaign about to kick into a higher gear after Labor Day, one thing we can be sure of is that immigration will once again be a major campaign theme.
“Immigration matters for many reasons, but especially to the U.S. economy and labor market because: . . .
“Immigration helps to seed the U.S. innovation advantage because immigrants are disproportionately represented in the ranks of leading innovators and paradigm-shifting thinkers who have helped transform American society. . . .
“First, let’s face the fact that the U.S. immigration system is broken. No surprise there—because there’s been no meaningful change in that system for decades, despite persistent calls for comprehensive reform. The world has changed, substantially. Immigration has not.
“Second, there’s simply no way to avoid the reality that our economy needs more workers. The skilled labor shortage is real. . . .
“I wish we had a sensible system for attracting badly needed talent to this country. Sadly, our ability to encourage greater diversity through immigration and harness the energy and drive that immigrants bring to our shores has been hampered by years of policy drift and outright hostility to even minor changes in the immigration system. . . .
“None of this should be controversial or divisive. History has shown there’s no safer wager, no wiser strategy, than betting on immigration. After all, immigrants made some of the most significant innovations in America. . . .
“Immigrants are often small-business owners, often fueling local economies. The ongoing contributions of sons and daughters of immigrants lift our country—economically, socially, and culturally. . . .
“The fact remains that we need immigrants more than ever, both to complement the talent development strategies we invest in via education, and to boost our innovation efforts in a time of AI and increasing challenges brought on by existential threats like climate change and authoritarianism. So let’s stop arguing about immigration and make it work for us. By investing in new immigration approaches, everyone will benefit.” – Let’s Stop Arguing About Immigration—And Let It Help Us All, Jamie Merisotis, Forbes, 7/25/23 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: History doesn’t show that “betting on immigration” is the wisest strategy. This claim suggests that immigration is always beneficial no matter how many immigrants we admit or their composition. To cite a prominent example, the mass immigration of one hundred years ago was a bad bet. It was impoverishing our workers and balkanizing our society. Fortunately, we had statesmen at that time who recognized these problems and acted to keep them from getting worse. The culmination of their efforts was the immigration act of 1924, which sharply reduced immigration for forty years.
What happened then? Did the economy grind to a halt due to a shortage of workers? Did our technological development falter and decline for lack of foreign geniuses? No, nothing of the kind took place. To the contrary, our economy became the mightiest on earth, workers’ wages rose, and immigrants and their descendants rose into the middle class. With mostly native-born talent, we became the most innovative nation on the planet. We were a strong and united country.
How have we fared since the late 1960s when mass immigration resumed? Well, not so well. Our middle-class has shrunk, and our innovation is not so outstanding. If immigration is the magic economic elixir that its proponents claim, how could this have happened? One thing to consider is that immigrants, contrary to this article, are not mostly entrepreneurs and technical geniuses. In reality, immigrants and natives own businesses at about the same rates, and we select most legal immigrants on the basis of their family connections to previous immigrants rather than for their skills.
In the wake of the present wave of mass immigration, we are definitely less united than we were before it. The author of the above article praises immigration for bringing more “diversity,” but the divisive diversity we have today is our weakness, not our strength.
This article is typical the mindless immigration enthusiasm of American elites and their media. One telling phrase is the author’s reference to the “existential threat” of what he calls “authoritarianism.” That term is one elites commonly use to disparage the beliefs and values of ordinary traditional Americans.
The charge is most ironic because the elites, guided by woke ideology, seek to micromanage how everyone thinks, speaks, and behaves. Could it be that our elites want immigration to swamp and marginalize the so-called authoritarians? Most immigrants, after all, come from countries where people are used to obeying their “betters.” Traditional Americans irritate those “betters” by standing up for their rights. Is this a “conspiracy theory.” No, it’s a plausible theory.