Immigration enriches all Americans
Obama speaks eloquently about the need to treat migrants humanely and yet he has deported more immigrants than any other US president
Abook, warns that “ill- clad and destitute” immigrants are “repulsive to our habits and our tastes”. A former mayor of New York City cautions that they bring disease, “wretchedness and want” to America. And despairs that these immigrants are “steeped in ignorance” and account for a disproportionate share of criminals. Boy, those foreigners were threatening — back in the mid- 1800s when those statements were made about Irish immigrants. Once again, the US is split by vitriolic debates about how to handle immigrants, following President Barack Obama’s executive action to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. To me, the outrage seems driven by three myths:
Immigrants threaten the American way of life
Many Americans see foreigners moving into their towns, see signs in Spanish and fret about changes to the traditional fabric of society. It is true that undocumented immigrants may lower wages in some sectors, harming low- skilled native- born Americans who compete with them. One study suggests that a 10 per cent increase in the size of a skill group lowers the wages of blacks in that group by 2.5 per cent. Yet, just look around. Immigration has hugely enriched America. For starters, unless you are a full- blooded American Indian, you’ve had it!
Nations, like carpets, benefit from multiple kinds of threads and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, was right: “It is a good rule of thumb to ask of a country: Are people trying to get into it or out of it?”
Immigrants today are different because they are illegals
Look, people are not legal or illegal, behaviours are. If an investment banker is convicted of insider trading, he does not become an illegal. So let us refer not to “illegal immigrants” but to “undocumented immigrants”. They have contributed $ 100 billion ( Dh367.8 billion) to Social Security over a decade without any intention of collecting benefits, thus shoring up the system, according to Stephen C. Goss, chief actuary for the Social Security Administration.
At the state and local level, households headed by unauthorised immigrants paid another $ 11 billion in taxes in 2010 alone. If these migrants are given work permits and brought into the system, they will contribute $ 45 billion over five years in payroll taxes.
Parasites? No, they’re assets.
Immigration reform, an unconstitutional power- grab
Senator Ted Cruz compared Obama’s executive action to the Catiline conspirators seeking to overthrow the Roman Republic. It is difficult for me to judge the legality of Obama’s executive action. But neither are critics furious at Obama. America has a broken, byzantine immigration system — anybody who deals with it is staggered by the chaos — because politicians are too craven to reform it. At least Obama is attempting to modernise it.
But I see a different hypocrisy in Obama’s action. He spoke eloquently last Thursday about the need to treat migrants humanely — and yet this is the “deporter- in- chief” who has deported more immigrants than any of his predecessors. By a 2011 estimate, more than 5,000 children who are US citizens are with foster families because their parents have been detained or deported.
We need empathy and humility. My father, a refugee from Eastern Europe, was preparing a fraudulent marriage to an American citizen as a route to America when he was sponsored, making fraud unnecessary. My wife’s grandfather bought papers from another Chinese villager to be able to come to the US.
So remember: What most defines the 11 million undocumented immigrants in America is not illegality but undaunted courage and ambition for a better life. What separates their families from most Americans is simply the passage of time — and the lottery of birth.