Security at What Cost?
I want to make a counter-intuitive argument that might seem radical at first glance. Tell me what you think.
The new immigration bill has sparked a variety of comments from the conservative front. I was waiting for Pat Buchanan to chime in, and he has on WorldNet Daily (where else?). His argument is the same as always--that the flood of non-white immigrants now and in the future (exacerbated of course by "amnesty") do not share white anglo-saxon cultural values and a commitment to education and achievement. Therefore, we are doomed to be a nation of warring nationalities whose future is as bleak as the former Yugoslavia.
I want to offer a different perspective than Mr. Buchanan. His analysis has consistently failed to address one important question. Why are immigrants coming to America in record numbers? They surely are not coming to be the fodder of highly paid political pundits. Instead, they are coming because there is opportunity. If the job opportunities dried up in this land of plenty, so too would the flow of immigration. If the various entitlement programs in Western countries became insolvent, border fences would not be necessary. People anywhere do what they must for their families to survive and in some cases, thrive.
White Americans, on the other hand, are losing ground demographically because they are rich. Rich people just don't have a lot of babies. The few babies they do have are also losing ground economically to other folks because they are not as motivated to succeed as their parents were. After all, if tremendous wealth and decentralized authority has led to a 50% divorce rate and a skyrocketing crime rate, what exactly is to gain by rich kids working hard? (Think for a minute about the wisdom of the rich King Solomon in Ecclesiastes.) Of course there are many exceptions to this. But it is hard to imagine, say, Bill Gates' kids working as hard as their father. Don't think about this too long, but how many sons of great kings in history have outstripped their father's legacy? The answer is not many. Monarchies and empires have collapsed for this very reason. America is not immune from this trend regardless of how many immigrants we let in.
In fact, immigration may be just what we need to reverse this trend. America has always been united by ideas more than by ethnicity. That is why immigrants have always breathed new life into our sluggish economy at various periods--they come to work hard. Current and future waves of immigrants are no different. Lets face it, if we seal up the borders and allow ourselves to become all the richer, our kids will retire at 35 and the few remaining jobs will be exported to China and India, where people work hard for less reward. Call it unjust, but it is a fact of life. On the other hand, if rich kids were given the same opportunities as immigrants are given (read: not many), then maybe they would be motivated to succeed again. They would learn the value of working hard.
I have no guarantee that this would prevent terrorism or gang violence or any such evil. I do know, however, that the kind of ugly xenophobia peddled by the Pat Buchannans of the world leads nowhere but to insular irrelevance.
1 comments:
Big T you are on to something.
The American conservative media –not necessarily individual conservatives– have a big stake in separating US from THEM, it sells books and keeps their anxiety ridden viewers and listeners coming back. Yet shamefully the same media also thrive on driving a wedge between Americans.
For me I agree that “all politics is local." And here in the real world --at our family store-- we deal with Mexican immigrants daily. They, like our other customers, are friendly, polite, easy going and honest. (I say honest because some have bought items on credit or lay-away and paid as we agreed upon and if they had to miss a payment they let us know.) I'm a people watcher. When Mexican families visit the store they (again like our other customers) seem to love their children and have a tight knit family.
Our son Jesse's fiancé Christine is Iranian and American. Her father was born in Iran, married an American and has lived and worked (hard) here in the states for thirty years. We have talked many times. Recently his American wife made her first visit to Iran. As she told us about her visit it became clear that most Iranian folks are, at their core, like us. They love their families, worry about paying the bills, are concerned about their health, are moderately religious, they want to live and let live and they love to get together and eat. Their political views and individual tastes are as varied as anyone’s --from conservative to liberal. (Of course like Americans and the rest of the world there are a few bad apples, mainly the government and currently the dangerously religious.)
I have always enjoyed learning about other cultures yet I realize our differences are usually just that: cultural and superficial and not a matter of life and death.
Later,
Cousin Larry
Post a Comment