The Quote Below: More Misinformation from the Media
When you see the immigration system up close, you’re confronted with its bottomless unfairness. The system assumes that people born outside our borders are less deserving of basic rights than those inside. My native-born American friends did not seem to me to warrant any more dignity than my South African ones; according to this nation’s founding documents, we were all created equal. Yet by mere accident of geography, some were given freedom, and others were denied it. . . .
People worry [that immigrants] will take jobs away from native workers, even though most studies suggests (sic) that immigration is a profound benefit to the economy, and there’s little evidence that it hurts native workers. And if we worry that they will hoover up welfare benefits, [we can] impose residency requirement on them. . . .
Economically and strategically, open borders isn’t just a good plan—it’s the only chance we’ve got. America is an aging nation with a stagnant population. We have ample land to house more people, but we are increasingly short of workers. At the global stage, we face two colossi—India and China—which, with their billions, are projected to outstrip American hegemony within two decades. – There’s Nothing Wrong with Open Borders, The New York Times, Farhad Manjo, 1/16/19 [Link]
Fact Check of Quote: It’s not the duty of Americans to provide “fairness” to every human being on planet earth. And it is not unfair that we may enjoy more rights and benefits than some foreigners. We enjoy these things because our ancestors made the sacrifices to provide them to us. They are our birthright and our inheritance—which we are entrusted and morally obligated to pass on to our descendants. If people abroad want to have what we have, they have no right to take it. Their proper response is to observe what is successful about our country and apply it in their own lands.
The notion of open borders lacks as much in practicality as it does in moral authority. Simply consider the numbers. A recent Gallup poll found that nearly 160 million foreigners would like to move to the United States. Most probably they would like to bring their spouses and minor children with them—thus making a total that would probably exceed 300 million.
Can the author of this piece at least conceive that we might have some real problems if that many people showed up tomorrow, invited by open borders. Could we face a meltdown of Melting Pot with diversity overwhelming our power of assimilation? Would our welfare system break down under the weight of so many people, mainly from poor countries. The author says don’t worry because we can vote to limit benefits. But when the immigrants become citizens, they will vote too, and with their numbers probably get what they want.
Other problems are wage suppression as low-wage foreign workers would flood our labor markets. Contrary to the author’s claim, mass immigration does suppress the incomes of downscale Americans. He assertion that immigration brings prosperity is belied by California, the state with the highest percentage and number of immigrants. Before mass immigration, the state a had a vibrant middle-class economy. Today California is coming to resemble the economic structure of the Third World homelands of many immigrants—a relative few rich people at the top, lots of poor and relatively poor people at the bottom, and not too many in between.
The author cites China and India as examples for us to follow. He doesn’t mention the gross overcrowding and environmental degradation of those countries. He might reflect that most Americans prefer our elbow room and our remaining wide-open spaces.
With open borders, we probably could expect a lot more than 300 million to come. They would be just the first wave. After that many more would see open borders as a signal for them to come too. And there would be no shortage of potential migrants to heed that signal.
World population is now increasing at a net rate of 80 million a year, mostly in poor countries. There is no way we could absorb even a small percentage of that increase, year by year, without our country being totally overwhelmed?
If most people around the world want a better life for themselves, they must find it by pursuing reforms in their own countries. We do them no service by encouraging them to run away from their problems with our overly-generous immigration policy. We can assist them with those problems, but not if we are overwhelmed ourselves.