Immigration

The United States needs to redefine it's understanding of the nature of immigration. In the old days when there was a lot of space and a lot of optimism we were the land of the free and the home of the brave. People came here from far and wide seeking a better way of life. People came here to get the hell away from the places that were oppressing them, so that they can live free life, with others who came for the same reason.

There was a shared American dream. There was the vision of coming and making it. There was a vision that all was possible and there was security and anyone with a dollar and a dream, or even without a dollar, and just the willingness to work hard, would do well, or at the very least their children would.

Understanding immigration like this worked well for the US. We took in people who wanted to make the place better, and as Adam Smith would have put it, we all gained from some sort of invisible hand making sure that if we all try to work hard, we all do better. Everyone gained from most immigration. (This does not include those who came here to exploit our welfare system, but they are the minority).

Pat Buchanan and friends argue that unbridled immigration from outside will not change the US for the better anymore. He argues that if we allow people from other cultures to come in they will come with their culture, and their culture will overpower our own and will force a clash such that the US will start to look more like some Taliban nightmare, where women's rights are taken away, and Shariah law will take precedence over American law. This of course will only happen if we allow way more immigrants in, way too quickly. I am not overly concerned about such a possibility. We would need to let in millions each year for that to happen. We simply do not do that.

It is however somewhat of concern that most of our immigration is from countries that do not share our outlook, and the individuals who come do not share the same vision that most of out ancestors do.

What I am addressing though is asking the US to challenge the way it looks at immigration. Myself, as well as most people I know, as well as most Americans for that matter, are the benefactors of a wonderful and liberal immigration policy. This was the naive American policy that took in the poor, tired, and hungry, who simply yearned for the freedom to live without the tyrannous oppression that encumbered most of the rest of the world for most of human history.

The story is changing now. Can the US afford this? Can the US afford to be so naive? It is no longer people who want to make it. It is no longer people who are seeking a better life for them and their children. It is not people coming in to overturn our way of life and overthrow our country. We now have people who are here only to destroy America. Today we arrested five Arab-Americans who were aiding anti-American terrorism. How many have we missed. To their credit it was members of the Muslim American community who do share the an affinity for living and letting live that helped capture these people.

But we must be careful. The lessons of 9/11/01 should be clear. We cannot afford the naivete that we were blessed with till now.