When I ask my immigrant grandmother why she votes Republican (except Trump) and opposes open borders, she says, “Well because unlike the illegal immigrants, we followed the rules.” Grandma illegally crossed through the Bulgarian-Yugoslavian border in the mid-1960s hiding in the trunk of a car; she left her only child, my Dad, behind. “Grandma you literally broke the rules of God, nature, and man,” I think to myself and don’t say out loud.
I have two employees from Mexico who arrived here illegally when they were young. One is a US citizen and the other is DACA. They both have very extreme positions regarding immigration. I don’t
Oh my. They ARE real. I thought they were mostly just propaganda sock puppets by the dozens for hard right psychopath masters of the universe. Whew that’s a scary blind spot for the reality of what undocumented immigrant labor actually DOES in this country.
ANYWAY...I’m 1st born generation in the US-but my parents came from Canada, their parents came from County Cork & Dublin to Canada. I’d volunteer to live in either if it got me far away from the US-I’m SO DONE with this shit hole...but disabled people can’t immigrate-no one will take us. What a wonderful world 🖤
Low-skill immigrant workers give employers an endless supply of cheap labor at the expense of the labor pool already here. This is in clear evidence for those of us in the blue-collar world, and would be much further removed as a threat to the employment or wage levels to the sort of people who have Substack accounts.
And it is not beyond the pale to point out that in sufficient numbers, immigrant groups form assimilation-resistant parallel societies within our borders, often explicity based on race and ethnicity. This leads to a struggle for self-determination, which they cannot have without destroying ours. Such groups should be limited in number to allow for a more gradual and successful assimilation. Assimilation is actually a 2-way street, by the way. The moon orbits the Earth, influencing its tides. But we wouldn't (and shouldn't) want the Earth to orbit the moon.
A sensible immigration policy would allow only the best and the brightest to come here and work skilled jobs, as needed to benefit the existing citizenry, or to fill positions we cannot produce due to a lack of talent. But this should never be done for the benefit of employers.
On the non-skilled side, we could solve some of the labor shortage with higher wages. We would still need a supply of laborers not available at any price here, but our laws should require that imported labor makes wages sufficiently high in order to discourage wage degradation.
Again, policy should exist to serve our interests, not that of others. It doesn't matter to me if someone is coming here to improve their lives if it harms mine.
Open borders makes sense. I’ve been advocating for open borders for many years
Great piece. Can you link to your interview with the Trump supporters whose wives were deported.
Thank you! It's in this piece https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/swing-voter-2020/
I don’t understand their thought process and I get a headache listening to them explain what they’re thinking.
I have two employees from Mexico who arrived here illegally when they were young. One is a US citizen and the other is DACA. They both have very extreme positions regarding immigration. I don’t
Oh my. They ARE real. I thought they were mostly just propaganda sock puppets by the dozens for hard right psychopath masters of the universe. Whew that’s a scary blind spot for the reality of what undocumented immigrant labor actually DOES in this country.
ANYWAY...I’m 1st born generation in the US-but my parents came from Canada, their parents came from County Cork & Dublin to Canada. I’d volunteer to live in either if it got me far away from the US-I’m SO DONE with this shit hole...but disabled people can’t immigrate-no one will take us. What a wonderful world 🖤
Low-skill immigrant workers give employers an endless supply of cheap labor at the expense of the labor pool already here. This is in clear evidence for those of us in the blue-collar world, and would be much further removed as a threat to the employment or wage levels to the sort of people who have Substack accounts.
And it is not beyond the pale to point out that in sufficient numbers, immigrant groups form assimilation-resistant parallel societies within our borders, often explicity based on race and ethnicity. This leads to a struggle for self-determination, which they cannot have without destroying ours. Such groups should be limited in number to allow for a more gradual and successful assimilation. Assimilation is actually a 2-way street, by the way. The moon orbits the Earth, influencing its tides. But we wouldn't (and shouldn't) want the Earth to orbit the moon.
A sensible immigration policy would allow only the best and the brightest to come here and work skilled jobs, as needed to benefit the existing citizenry, or to fill positions we cannot produce due to a lack of talent. But this should never be done for the benefit of employers.
On the non-skilled side, we could solve some of the labor shortage with higher wages. We would still need a supply of laborers not available at any price here, but our laws should require that imported labor makes wages sufficiently high in order to discourage wage degradation.
Again, policy should exist to serve our interests, not that of others. It doesn't matter to me if someone is coming here to improve their lives if it harms mine.