Thread: Immigration issues too huge to not talk about

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Published: Sunday, July 6, 2008

Immigration issues too huge to not talk about

By James McCusker

When the soldiers, sailors and Marines returned home from Europe and the Pacific after World War II, we were a nation of some 150 million people. By the time the Vietnam War ended, our numbers had grown to 220 million.

Now, according to the Census Bureau, there are more than 304 million of us -- twice the number that were here to greet the returning veterans in 1945. And more than 80 million more than were here to welcome back the POWs from the Vietnam War.

Within a single lifespan we have created a second America. We now have twice the number of people living within approximately the same borders, the same cities and states that sent their young men and women off to defend our nation in a global war.

Augmented by immigration, our population growth has been so rapid that, to paraphrase the late 1980s advertising slogan, today's United States is clearly "not your father's America." And it is definitely not your grandfather's America, either.

The difference between America now and the America of two, three and four generations ago is one of the main themes of a new book by Mark Krikorian, "The New Case Against Immigration, Both Legal & Illegal." Immigration to the United States is different today he argues, but not because immigrants have changed. "It's not the immigrants -- it's us," he writes. "What's different about immigration today as opposed to a century ago is not the characteristics of the newcomers but the characteristics of our society."

Krikorian's book is bound to be controversial; almost everything about immigration is. And, certainly, in an election year it seems that everyone is more sensitive to real, potential and imaginary threats to their favored positions and beliefs.

The book, as its title reveals, is a work of advocacy, but it is no rant. It examines many dimensions of the immigration issue, and provides very useful historical and statistical perspectives on immigration -- its positive as well as its negative impacts.

One of the dimensions is, of course, economics. Immigrants, legal and illegal, have provided and continue to provide a good deal of the low-wage labor that fuels important sectors of our economy. Concern about the loss of this labor sector was behind the administration's effort to establish "guest worker" programs and create paths to citizenship for resident illegals -- an effort that failed because both the White House and Congress had misread popular sentiment on these issues as well as on border integrity.

Besides labor force input to production another significant factor is the support that immigration provides for Social Security and similar retirement benefit systems.

The issue is most visible in Russia, Japan and Western Europe where birth rates have fallen dramatically and cannot sustain the population levels. This not only could spell the end of these countries' cultural identity but also will make their public pension retirement systems financially untenable.

We have similar issues facing us in the United States, but it is a rare politician who is willing to address them in an election year. And given the recent track record of politicians' misreading of popular sentiment on this issue the absence of political discourse on the subject is unfortunate. If Krikorian's book sparks that process, we will owe him -- big time.

Thanks in part to immigration, neither our cultural nor our financial problems are as acute as they are in some other countries -- but that doesn't mean they aren't there. The trade-off, though, is that the foreign-born population in the U.S. today is almost 38 million, nearly four times what it was in 1970.

Most of the immigrating adults are part of working America, contributing to our economy as well as to Social Security and other tax-supported systems. Still, it's not your father's America. We are a very different place than we were a generation ago. That number of foreign-born residents -- one out of every eight people -- is a lot for any culture, even one as open and welcoming as the U.S., to absorb so rapidly.

From an economic policy standpoint, the significant point is that the transformation of our country has taken place largely without the kind of public, political discourse that would inform voters about the benefits and costs of immigration. It just sort of happened.

Those of us who have been around for a while tend to have a lot of confidence in America and in its economy. And if any country can welcome large numbers of immigrants and emerge strengthened, with its economy and its heart intact, it is the U.S. Still, it wouldn't hurt to talk about it. And it's bound to hurt if we don't.

James McCusker is a Bothell economist, educator and consultant. He also writes a monthly column for the Snohomish County Business Journal
http://www.alipac.us/ftopic-new-6.html

1. I like Mark Krikorian, he's well versed and very knowledgeable on the subject matter.

2. Re:

Now, according to the Census Bureau, there are more than 304 million of us -- twice the number that were here to greet the returning veterans in 1945.

.
Actually, according to the US Bureau of the Census ('Census Bureau'), that number is more accurately 304,528,xxx - so, what the heck, let's just round up and call it an even 305,000,000. Didn't we just cross the 300,000,000 officially in Nov 2006? (Answer: yes, we did).
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html

3. In contrast to what the US CoC, OBL groups, etc. would claim, what we are talking about here is not replacement-level immigration, it is actual and absolute increasing population growth - considering we are the 3rd most numerous country on the planet, and do consume resources disproportionately (much higher than the norm), one would think finding a way to scale back and stabilize such growth would be the responsible and desirable thing to do.

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