At that time, immigration was viewed as sort of an apprenticeship leading to full membership in an open, confident and growing country with plenty of room.
Not that it was “equal opportunity”, far from it.
….The doors were more open for white Europeans than for members of other groups, like the Chinese and Japanese, who were almost entirely shut out. Many white immigrants – the Irish, Italians, European Jews – suffered profound discrimination once they arrived.
.
What should immigration be, really? A Professor Motomura has recently published a book, mentioned in passing in the NYT MSM editorial, “Americans in Waiting” – see contents and review http://papers.ssrn.c…
Our state projects up to 35% shortages in certain kinds of employment; many areas of our country are emptying, declining populations.
Just as the far right has taken over the discussion of taxes, so that the dynamic has become an “us against them” divide and counquer, rather than “what do we all need, let’s pay for it” – the immigration debate seems to have been hijacked as well. Professor Motomura’s book looks interesting. I may just have to take the time to read it.
it seems to me that an idealistic patina has always been put on immigration here, but that this is a rather false view of reality. my impression is that most immigrants to the US have been and still are economic immigrants. so, i hope that Motomura delves into international trade agreements and related issues, and doesn’t try to isolate immigration from the factors that prompt it.
<
p>
I found this statement of yours interesting: “Our state projects up to 35% shortages in certain kinds of employment; many areas of our country are emptying, declining populations.” Yet our national population is always increasing (over 300 million last I checked), and our factory and service jobs keep leaving. How to explain the disparity between your observation and mine?
There was a frontier then, which has since closed. We have 300M people here now; we didn’t then.
<
p>
Unless you have another continent in mind that can be de-populated in preparation for manifest destiny, unlimited immigration is not something that can be sustained in this day and age. If there are to be limits that are meaningful, they must be enforced.
Most of the farmers have left Aroostock County, Maine. We drove up to where my mother-in-law once lived, and fields were returning to forests, and trees grew up through houses. The Metropolitan Planning Commission has four scenarios, several of which postulate shortages of employees in certain types of jobs – you don’t have to take my word for it:
<
p>
http://www.metrofutu…
<
p>
According to the model you will find at this site, if our community college graduation rate went up, our shortage in certain areas of employment goes down [joint variance]. Currently, shamefully enough, our community college graduation rate is only 17%! I was shocked, actually, and in many fields, as you will see if you explore this site, there ARE projected shortages.
<
p>
Of course many variables are being tracked.