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People have argued against immigration from the beginning of this country. Benjamin Franklin said the Germans would never assimilate or learn English. It was a stupid argument then and it is a stupid argument now
Ask a Swede or German or Belgian how that Arab assimilation is coming along.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lockdev
Ask a Swede or German or Belgian how that Arab assimilation is coming along.
I was going to tell him that many of today's immigrants don't assimilate the way immigrants did 100 years ago. For the past 40 yrs I've come in contact with many foreigners who have been here for decades and still can not speak English - but get our benefits. There's hardly a place you call now that tells you to press 1 for English and there is no reason for this.
Well over a billion people live in India, which is roughly 5 times the size of Texas.
They have all kinds of problems due to overpopulation.
The author used that statistic to illustrate land use and suburban sprawl. It was not meant to be a practical suggestion as it does not account for commercial, industrial and agricultural land use.
India's cities are overpopulated, but there are a lot more rural areas that are vastly underpopulated. Unfortunately, their infrastructure is not extensive enough to support larger populations outside the main cities. I was in India for a week a couple of years ago. At the place i stayed (comparable to a motel), when I flushed the toilet, I could hear everything being dumped into the yard. This was not in one of the big cities.
It seems like the main justification I hear for keeping the immigrants rolling in, from both the Left and Right in America, is that we're a "nation of immigrants". They point to, for example, the wave of Irish immigrants 100 years ago.
But aren't the circumstances a lot different today?
Not as much space. 100 years ago, there was still plenty of land to move to. Now it's all gobbled up, so that more people means pricer housing and propoerty.
Not as many jobs. Automation, outsourcing, and so forth have already created a situation where there is a lot of competition for jobs. There is not even enough jobs being created for the native-born Americans entering the working age, and yet we need to bring in more people to compete for the limited number of jobs?
Welfare. When the Irish immigrants came, it was work or starve. Nowadays, you come here and you are automatically entitled to tax dollars for not working, to unlimited $$$ for college tuition, to "health care", etc. It's been shown that today's immigrants are taking more in tax dollars than they are paying in tax dollars.
Not as easy to assimilate. Since America is such a culuturally divided country, there is no longer a "melting pot." Obviously it was easier for the Irish immigrants since America was 95% Christian, 95% White, 95% watched baseball, 95% spoke English in their homes, etc.
The anti-immigration arguments back then were more or less the same as now. Many immigrants did not assimilate like "the Dutch" (who were actually Germans) never learned the language, but their kids did. The Irish were despised and accused of being here to take American jobs, houses etc.
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Hey - get this straight.
My family are not "immigrants." We are CONQUERERS! My ancestors discovered and CONQUERED this land and FOUNDED this country.
They TOOK IT at gunpoint from the indians.
Then they killed French soldiers who tried to take the land, and then they killed British soldiers who tried to make our people bow and pay tribute to the crown. Then my father and uncles kicked the butts of the japs and germans who would subjugate the world and they made America great. If it falls to me and mine to restore the Republic, we will.
You johnny come latelys may be immigrants, the irish, the jews, the mexicans, chinese and all the rest that we have allowed here, but "I" am an American.
If you want to come here, legally, and assemilate and BECOME an American, fine, we will allow you.
But if you are just here to exploit, take advantage or steal our heritage or if you think you will subjugate us to your false god allah.
The anti-immigration arguments back then were more or less the same as now. Many immigrants did not assimilate like "the Dutch" (who were actually Germans) never learned the language, but their kids did. The Irish were despised and accused of being here to take American jobs, houses etc.
still happens. I sell to NYC and Chicago Drs. who have a clientele who arrived in the USA immediately Postwar. They prefer to use their native language- Polish and Italian respectively. Too difficult to learn a language once past puberty. Although comprehension is there. Big difference is they were doers not takers. Look at the mid-70s Laotian, Hmong, Vietnamese and note the excellent example they have provided. The first gen Cubans were like that, but the ones from Mariel and after were accustomed to a central gov't and a corrupt one at that, so they brought all those bad habits with them. They have a terrible reputation compared to the 1st gen. ones.
I will take an Asian immigrant over a ME or LA one any day.
And may of those tribal nations like the Aztecs took that land through violence from other tribal nations. It is called being human in the pre-modern era - heck it still happens today.
One error does not justify another error. "Well some people centuries ago made this mistake, so that forces us into choosing another mistake today."
Quote:
Originally Posted by TristramShandy
People have argued against immigration from the beginning of this country. Benjamin Franklin said the Germans would never assimilate or learn English. It was a stupid argument then and it is a stupid argument now
Fair point, but as others have pointed out times have changed. Assimilation is looked at as oppression by many liberals and we literally have people coming into America not for the opportunity to work like before and with people who literally hate our culture.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bklynkenny
There is still plenty of land. The entire world population can live in an area the size of Texas if there are 25 dwelling units per acre (statistic is from the book "A Country of Cities").
Where would one farm?
Do you really think we have the resources and ability to house that much?
Statistically speaking, US low-skill citizens are hurt by the 11,000,000+ illegal immigrants and the 1,000,000 a year legal immigrants.
Our immigrant reality is that most (not all) immigrants are low skill. This drives up competition for those jobs and drives down wages.
The statistics say that US born low skill citizens are having their real wages decline and their unemployment is not declining. This disproportionately hurts African-Americans.
With increasing automation in the next few decades, it may be smart to tailor our immigration more (not completely) to high skill jobs, but that isn't as good for votes for a certain party.
People have argued against immigration from the beginning of this country. Benjamin Franklin said the Germans would never assimilate or learn English. It was a stupid argument then and it is a stupid argument now
Irrelevant.
The parameters of immigration have completely changed since then
To put it in a perspective that you can relate to and comprehend, it's like comparing the need for a Musket in 1791 to the need for an AR-15 in 2016.
We now have Assault Immigration.
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