TUESDAY, MAY 16, 2023 - IMMIGRATION - PART II

 TUESDAY MAY 16,2023 - IMMIGRANT PART 2

First a political aside.  Some other countries have the political leader elected by the legislative assembly.  Thus Great Britain has several political parties and sometimes you get where a consortium of parties come together to select the Prime Minister.  This works well until one of the parties disagrees and there is a vote of confidence.  (It seems like Israel and Italy have so many fractional parties that getting a leader can be difficult).

In the United States, the people “directly” elect their leader (well, they don’t - they elect a group that goes to the electoral college to select the leader). And, generally, it is whichever candidate has the most votes gets all the electoral votes from that state - so if Candidate A - representing the Democratic party gets 53% of the popular vote in Kansas, all of Kansas's electoral votes go to Candidate A. 

Thus the United States generally has two major parties - Republicans and Democrats.  There are occasionally other groups - Libertarians, or Greens - but since they don't generally get elected they are largely ignored.  

Thus the two major parties spar with each other.  If Party A wants this approach, party B will generally oppose that direction.  If party A says ‘more military spending’, party B will challenge ‘more spending on domestic issues’.

Immigration, my topic this week is one of those issues.  If party A says “Keep everybody out - build a wall”, then part B says “Let them all in”.  If a particular representative disagrees with his party on a major issue, that person might lose their seat on an important committee.  The two major parties have their leaders - and their “whips” - which attempt to keep mavericks in line.

Yesterday I used https://www.cato.org/blog/14-most-common-arguments-against-immigration-why-theyre-wrong with suggestions like these to keep immigrants out of the United States.

• There are undesirables in the group (criminals)

• They’ll take our jobs

• They don’t know our language 

• They don’t know our culture

• They will hurt the poor (by taking away built-in benefits we have for the poort)

• They will abuse the benefits we give them

• They will add to the budget deficit

• They aren’t like previous immigrants

• They will hurt the environment, and cause additional crowding in cities

Let’s look at some of those arguments and counterarguments:

Immigrants will take our jobs

That link says “Posh”

“This is the most common argument and also the one with the greatest amount of evidence rebutting it. First, the displacement effect is small if it even affects natives at all. Immigrants are typically attracted to growing regions and they increase the supply and demand sides of the economy once they are there, expanding employment opportunities. Second, the debate over immigrant impacts on American wages is confined to the lower single digits—immigrants may increase the relative wages for some Americans by a tiny amount and decrease them by a larger amount for the few Americans who directly compete against them. Immigrants likely compete most directly against other immigrants so the effects on less-skilled native-born Americans might be very small or even positive.”

I live in Texas - one of the areas that has a large increase in population.  Many businesses are screaming “We are hiring”.  The housing and related building job market is booming - and (in my opinion) most of those working building houses are from a Hispanic background.  (My apartment complex is doing some minor remodeling currently.  If I walk by two workers re-roofing a building, they will probably be speaking Spanish.  When I drive by a crew building a new road, they appear Hispanic.  Could they use more employees?  Sure!!  A friend wanted an addition to her house and had trouble finding a contractor because they are so busy.  

Traditionally, the newcomers to America take the jobs Americans don’t want.  Many of the East Coast shipyards had Italian and Irish workers - they might have a larger number of Hispanic workers now.  If I was a manual laborer, I’m not sure I want to be putting on roofs in Texas when it is 100 degrees!!!

Some of my ancestors came from Germany in the mid-19th century.  In particular, my great-great-grandfather came as he was the third son and wouldn’t inherit the farm.  He became a farmer when the land was essentially free in Iowa.  Now four generations later, a few of his descendants are farmers, but there are professors, nurses, doctors, lawyers, merchants, homemakers, computer technicians, and almost all professions.  

Can you imagine an America in 100 years?  I can. Farms will be bigger and be using more technology (like even autonomous tractors and combines); more of the population will be in the south (warmer and more jobs), and whites will be a minority.  

With more interracial marriages, the population will be almost “color blind”.  (Alas, the laws of hereditary will mean very few red-haired people.).  We will have had Hispanic presidents, female presidents, (and maybe even LGBTQ presidents).

(I don’t anticipate being around in 100 years!! <grin>)

To complete this analysis, look back 100 years - 1923.  Since then, we’ve had a Second World War, cars, planes, space travel, television, computers, internet, air conditioning, and so much more.  I can only say “WOW” - but when predicting 100 years in the future, I imagine that “WOW PLUS” might be the term.  

So, two days of immigration.  More tomorrow.

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, MAY 16, 2023