Immigration—The Elites vs the People

For John, BLUF:  And the majority of voters dislike "chain migration".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Shock poll: Americans want massive cuts to legal immigration

Here is the sub-headline:

Cutting chain migration even more popular than legalizing Dreamers

By Reporter Stephen Dinan, of The Washington Times, 22 January 2018.

Here is the lede plus one:

A government shutdown is in the rearview mirror, but the outlines of a looming immigration deal remain murky with the sides still far apart — though the latest polling suggests President Trump’s bargaining position may be strong.

A Harvard-Harris poll taken in the run-up to the shutdown found Americans strongly support granting citizenship rights to illegal immigrant Dreamers.  But they also back Mr. Trump’s three demands for a border wall, limits to the chain of family migration and an end to the Diversity Visa Lottery.

Most striking of all is the public’s demand for lower overall legal immigration — a position that has little traction on Capitol Hill but one that is overwhelmingly popular across the country.

This is a hot topic these days.  In fact, Professor Walter Russell Mead had an OpEd in The Wall Street Journal, Monday, the 22nd—"Immigration Is Still Radioactive".  The sub-headline is "A debate between naive elitism and ugly nativism only impedes pragmatic reforms."

Using terms like "naive elitism" and "ugly nativism" are not helpful, especially the last term, which is particularly ugly. : It is like "former Nazi", from which there is no hope for reform  In the mean time this is a problem that is crying for a new analytic approach.

For example, what do the sociologists tell us about the loading factor.  How many immigrants from different cultures will it take to tip us politically or economically away from what works for us, from what makes us attractive to emigrants from other nations?  Or even creates emigration pressures?

For the political scientists, how much assimilation do we need for incomers to understand our political system and work within it.  Based on Cambodians living in Lowell, or Portuguese, this doesn't seem like a big deal, but is it?♠  There have been questions about how Somalis have settled in in the US.♥

The other thing that strikes me is how easily some sweep illegal immigration up into immigration as a whole, ignoring the issue of the adverse impact of scofflaws.  If you came in illegally, why would you conform to other laws about citizenship, or drivers licenses, or other things?  Further, allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the country may work against our understanding of the legitimacy of refugees, who are a whole other category.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff
-2 Mon 0

♠  Why the references to the Lusitanians?  Because Portugal was, up until 1968, a dictatorship under Salazar (from 1932 to 1968).
♥  I am amazed that the best known Somali in America, here via the Netherlands, Ms Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been tagged as a right winger, because she is opposed to FGM.