Thread: Take closer look at immigrant tidal wave

Thursday, Apr 3, 2008
Posted on Thu, Apr. 03, 2008
Take closer look at immigrant tidal wave
NEAL PEIRCE
Whatever our emotional reaction to the tide of immigrants flowing into America, it's time to re-evaluate.
That's the short message of "Twenty-First Century Gateways," a just-released Brookings Institution book focused on the numbers of immigrants and the remarkable geographic distribution of newcomers -- legal and illegal -- that the United States has been experiencing since 1990.

A century ago, immigrants were mostly a big-city phenomenon. As quickly as they arrived at Ellis Island or California ports, most headed immediately to ethnic enclaves in such cities as New York, Boston, Chicago or San Francisco. In those cities, they assembled in Little Italys, Chinatowns, Irish neighborhoods, Lower East Sides. Only a minority headed straight to the Midwest for farming.

But these aren't your grandparents' immigrants, notes lead Brookings author Audrey Singer. True, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago still accommodate the most arriving immigrants.

But a whole new set of major immigrant gateway regions has opened. Among them are Seattle, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, San Jose, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Atlanta, Sacramento and Portland. And Washington, D.C. -- up from 255,000 foreign-born in 1980 to over 1 million in 2005. Coming on, though not yet fully flowered as major immigrant destinations, are Austin, Texas, the North Carolina cities of Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh and Winston-Salem, and even Salt Lake City.

What's significant is that most of the new immigrants aren't sticking to the city proper. Instead they're heading out to suburbs where most new job openings occur, and housing (often in older inner-ring suburbs) is relatively affordable. That spells geographic dispersion -- far from the immigrants of the early 20th century.

The last century's immigrant destination cities that aren't drawing many of today's immigrants turn out to be regions in some economic trouble -- Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia, for example.

Many illegals came legally

Today we have some 35.6 million immigrants -- of whom some 12 million are here illegally. But another surprise: Fully 40 percent of the "illegals" arrived legally. They came on legal temporary visas -- most arriving by air -- and then just stayed. So if we end up building the proposed mega-fence along the Mexican border, it may be just fractionally effective.Most public focus is on a possible congressional immigration bill, close to the compromise measure that stalled last year. But even if it passes, it won't be a silver bullet. Life in our communities, where the immigrants in fact live, depends heavily on state and local decisions.

This is a hot issue. As of last November about 1,560 immigration-related bills, three times the previous year, had been introduced in the 50 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Topics ranged from IDs to employment rights, driver's licenses to restrictions on employment of undocumented workers.

Plus, countless cities and counties are debating laws to address day-labor sites, loitering, language, employment, rental housing occupancy rules and the like. Many measures are anti-immigrant, motivated by decline in the economy, job competition and general suspicion of foreigners.

Farmers Branch in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex voted to make it illegal for landlords to rent to illegal immigrants. Hazleton, Pa., won national attention for an ordinance penalizing employers who hire illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to them. Arizona, Oklahoma and Georgia passed laws to discourage hiring illegal immigrants. The sheriffs of Mecklenburg County, Virginia's Prince William County and some other locales are openly cooperating with federal immigration officials hunting down illegal entrants.

But mayors of several cities (including New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco) have declared their towns "sanctuary cities," forbidding their police to report undocumented immigrants. Singer reports that police often oppose identifying illegal immigrants for fear the newcomers will be afraid to communicate with the police about local crime incidents.

Some cities reaching out

Many communities print materials in immigrants' native tongues. Plano, a thriving suburb north of Dallas, is a national model on the "assimilation" side with a multicultural roundtable to discuss issues, a citizens academy to teach about the local government, a festival to celebrate the town's many nationalities, and major outreach to new immigrants through its libraries.

Illinois has a public-private state-level task force focused on immigrants. It's urging programs to help immigrants learn English, establish state welcoming centers and put legal immigrants on a path to citizenship.

Should we welcome the welcomes? Yes, yes, says Maryland Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. Without immigrants, he says, there would be massive shutdowns, from hotels to hospitals. In Maryland, a quarter of scientists and a third of doctors are foreign-born -- critical to the state economy.

Places that try to exclude immigrants will only hurt themselves, Perez argues. And, he says, immigrants' payments are sustaining the nation's Social Security system to the tune of billions of dollars.

Indeed, the "graying of America" argument may be the clincher: Who'll do the work and pay the baby boomers' huge retirement bills if it isn't a fresh supply of immigrants?

Neal

Peirce
http://www.charlotte.com/409/story/564323.html

Should we welcome the welcomes? Yes, yes, says Maryland Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. Without immigrants, he says, there would be massive shutdowns, from hotels to hospitals. In Maryland, a quarter of scientists and a third of doctors are foreign-born -- critical to the state economy.

There are no massive shutdowns in economies with very limited or non-existent immigration like Finland or Japan. And their health care systems and hotels are of excellent quality. Contrary to high-level immigration countries where the health systems are collapsing.

Indeed, the "graying of America" argument may be the clincher: Who'll do the work and pay the baby boomers' huge retirement bills if it isn't a fresh supply of immigrants?

Ah, the $64,000 question! Been waitin' for it!

GO AFTER THE TAX DEADBEATS AND CHEATERS AND LEAVE LAW-ABIDING AMERICANS IN PEACE!
There is plenty there to cover everything if they would just get busy and do it. Instead Congress wastes valuable time debating how to keep Social Security from failing. But these days there are so many people doing something in the black market we have a $300 billion annual shortfall.

Another possible help: When someone can get large private pensions, cut back on their Social Security. A lot of times, they are advised to do it the other way around. Also try to get people back to work and off disability payments. If we rely on immigrant labor to bail us out it will become a never ending spiral.

Am I losing my objectivity---or---it is true? That is, am I becoming prejudiced or is my memory correct?? Do most of the public officials I see defending the invasion of the USA have Latino names??? Is Perez a Latino name?? Is his loyalty to his ethnic roots or is it to America? To me, it's a no-brainer. I am so bloody sick and tired of seeing elected officials with Latino names defending the illegal and immoral invasion of this country. They are betraying their oath of office and should be removed.

The 14th amendment does NOT grant citizenship to the children of illegals. The first wave is grown now and they are attempting to change the country into a safe haven for all the Hispanic needy people of the world. If they came with weapons, we would have fought them and removed them. They are winning though stealth and quiet invasion. They abuse our laws. They are not here to be Americans, they are here to change America to an Hispanic culture.