Immigrateful?

  Swearing in ceremony for new US citizens

Immigration has become a political football, far more than a real threat… everywhere. For countries with declining natural birth rates, below replacement levels – like the United States – immigration is an obvious economic lifeline, though most people do not see it that way. Fareed Zacharia’s guest economists figured that the US loses about $5 trillion in annual average GDP with its non-sensical policies. The UK’s prestigious The Economist (December 20th) published the results of a major staff investigation into the realities of global immigration:

“The vast majority of people who migrate do so voluntarily and without drama. For all the talk of record numbers and unprecedented crisis, the share of the world’s people who live outside their country of birth is just 3.6%; it has barely changed since 1960, when it was 3.1%. The numbers forcibly displaced fluctuate wildly, depending on how many wars are raging, but show no clear long-term upward trend. The total has risen alarmingly in the past decade or so, from 0.6% in 2012 to 1.4% in 2022. But this is only a sixth of what it was in the aftermath of the second world war.

“The notion that refugees pose a serious threat to rich countries is also far-fetched. Most fugitives from danger do not go far. Of the 110m people whom the UN classified as forcibly displaced as of mid-2023, more than half remained in their own countries. Barely 10% had made it to the rich world—slightly more than the population of London. This is not a trivial number, but it is plainly manageable if governments co-operate. Overall, poorer countries host nine times more displaced people with skimpier resources and less hysteria.

“The populist right drums up fears of overwhelming numbers in order to win votes. Some on the left inflame the issue in different ways. Lavishing benefits on asylum-seekers while making it hard for them to work guarantees that they will be a burden, which is why Sweden’s anti-immigrant party now has a slice of power…

“A wiser approach to migration would bear in mind two things. First, moving tends to make people much better off than they would have been, had they stayed put. Those who flee from danger find safety. Those who seek a new start find opportunity. Migrants from poor countries to rich ones vastly raise their own wages and have little or no effect on those of the native-born. Mobility also allows families to spread risks. Many pool cash to send a relative to a city or a richer country, so they have at least one income that doesn’t depend on the local weather.

“Second, recipient countries can benefit from immigration, especially if they manage it well. The most desirable destinations can attract the world’s most talented and enterprising people. Immigrants in America are nearly twice as likely to start a company as the native-born and four times likelier to win a Nobel science prize. Less-skilled migrants fill gaps in ageing labour forces and free up locals for more productive tasks (for example, when a foreign nanny enables two parents to work full-time).”

The US has not had serious immigration reform since the Reagan era almost four decades ago. Republicans have been the roadblock, even rejecting proposals from their own GOP President, George W Bush. And when immigration is governed by executive order, sometimes applying statutory provisions dealing with public health (during the pandemic), confusion reigns supreme, as Kevin Baxter, writing for the December 1st Los Angeles Times illustrates:

“Few who work in immigration law are surprised by the story; the capriciousness of America’s broken immigration system seems to be the rule, not the exception… ‘It’s a bit of layer cake,’ said Travis Murphy, a former U.S. diplomat who is the founder and chief executive of Jetr Global Partners, a Washington-based firm that works to solve visa and immigrant issues for athletes and sports franchises. ‘Policies have been enacted year over year that don’t necessarily work directly, in a coherent way, with previous policies…. We don’t have consensus in what we want the outcome to be… That’s the problem.’…

“The sometimes arbitrary and frequently confusing nature of American immigration law enforcement constrains the lives of millions of immigrants — those who live in the country legally as well as those here without legal status… More than 4 in 10 immigrants who participated in a wide-ranging survey conducted earlier this year by the Los Angeles Times and KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation, said they don’t understand how the country’s immigration policies work, nor how those policies affect their families. Yet they have no choice but to rely on those policies to be able to work, study and sometimes simply exist in this country.

“Roughly 1 in 4 immigrants said they’ve worried that they or a family member could be deported. The number is highest among the undocumented, but the fear is shared by one-third of legal permanent residents and 1 in 8 naturalized citizens. Many immigrants who have legal status have family members who do not… Some 10.5 million people — precise estimates vary — were living in the U.S. without authorization in 2021. Roughly 1.8 million live in uncertainty, recipients of Temporary Protected Status, student visas, DACA or other protocols that either have time limits or can be revoked, with little notice, at any time. Tens of thousands more are detained each month at the southern border as they try to join them… Meanwhile, the pathway to legally immigrate to the U.S. has become so constrained that for many, it doesn’t truly exist.”

This fluctuating litany of immigration policy changes only serves to encourage undocumented migrants coming to the US. There’s always hope. And whether it is climate change-related decimation to farmland (heavily attributed to countries, like the US, that got rich from using fossil fuels) or conflicts danger in their homeland (also heavily attributed to US-made guns smuggled south to allow cartels to rule ruthlessly, funded by US drug users), poverty and danger have combined to move people to our doorstep.

The benefits of having a realistic path to US citizenship vastly outweigh the risks and burdens. As a November 2020 study from the noted Kellogg School of Management points out: “The research confirms that immigrants are starting businesses at a much higher rate than native-born Americans, with this true for both large and small companies, which results in immigrants actually creating a large number of jobs.” Forbes (11/11/20). They clearly create more jobs than they take. Ah, but that reality does not jibe with conspiracy theorists and fearmongers running for office.

I’m Peter Dekom, and until our immigration policies are reformed based on reality, we are not going to see drooling political opportunists stopping their fabrications any time soon, with very visible negative results.