Cheap labor and cheap emotions - part one

My own experience as a cheap laborer, which I discussed in Wednesday’s post, is a good starting point for talking about the increasingly nasty immigration debate. As an admitted troglodyte, I do listen to a number of the AM radio shouters when I’m tooling around town during the day, and it’s been amazing to hear some of the things that are being said. The opposition to this bill is sincere, heartfelt and passionate. What you don’t get are any workable alternatives.

My own view on immigration is that immigrants are on balance a positive for this country. It’s become a cliché to point out that we are a nation of immigrants, but it is true. My ancestors came to the United States for a better life. Almost certainly yours did too. Not surprisingly people are still coming for the same reason. Additionally, since immigrants don’t take this better life for granted, they often are willing to work harder and better than native-born U.S. citizens. People don’t like to hear that or say it publicly, but it’s true.

This leads to one of the biggest arguments you’ll get on this issue; the notion put forth by immigration proponents that illegals tend to do work that Americans won’t do. This notion is hotly disputed but there’s not a lot of evidence to indicate the contrary. It often happens that the jobs are not necessarily convenient for unemployed or underemployed American citizens; if you are unemployed and live in Minneapolis, an available job at the turkey plant in Willmar is a tough commute. But it’s a lot tougher commute to Willmar from Jalisco, Mexico, or Chichicastenango, Guatemala, yet the workers who show up in Willmar tend to be from such places, rather than from Minneapolis. Perhaps that has meaning, perhaps it doesn’t, but you can certainly draw your own conclusions.

The problem remains – what do you do with all the people who are already here? You simply can’t deport 12 million people without causing tremendous problems, and not just on the border. In places like Willmar and Worthington, the immigrants are a key part of the local economy and have already transformed the communities in question. Growing up in Appleton, Wisconsin, the influx of Hmong refugees in the 1970s changed Appleton fundamentally as well. I’m not qualified to say if Appleton is a better place now than it was before 1975, but it is a different place and there have been a lot of benefits. I also know Appleton was a far different place before my ancestors arrived in the 1850s. And I also know that there were a lot people in the 1850s who were arguing against immigration in similar terms and with similar emotions to what you hear now. Some of them even formed their own political party, which has come down through history to be known as the “Know-Nothings.” Again, you can draw your own conclusions.

Here’s my other conclusion – we don’t have an immigration problem; we have an assimilation problem. More on that anon.