This is a good read when you have 15 minutes to spare.
When I was growing up in the 1980s, I watched my grandfather — my dad’s stepdad — struggle with his own prejudice. He was a blue-collar World War II veteran who loved his family above all things and was constantly afraid for them. He carried a gun and, like many men of his generation, saw threats in people he didn’t understand: African-Americans, independent women, gays. By the time he died, 10 years ago, he had softened. He stopped using racist and ****phobic slurs; he even hugged my gay cousin. But there was one view he wasn’t going to change. He had no time for Hispanics, he told us, and he wasn’t backing down. After all, this wasn’t a matter of bigotry. It was plain economics. These immigrants were stealing jobs from “Americans.”
Continue reading the main story
RELATED IN OPINION
Do Immigrants Take Jobs From American-Born Workers?JAN. 6, 2015
I’ve been thinking about my grandfather lately, because there are signs that 2015 could bring about the beginning of a truce — or at least a reconfiguration — in the politics of immigration. Several of the potential ********** presidential candidates, most notably Jeb Bush, have expressed pro-immigration views. Even self-identified Tea Party **********s respond three to two in favor of a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Every other group — **********s in general, independents and especially ********s — is largely pro-immigrant. According to Pew, roughly as many people (18 percent of Americans) believed in 2010 that President ***** was a ****** as believe today that undocumented immigrants should be expelled from the United States. Of course, that 18 percent can make a lot of noise. But for everyone else, immigration seems to be going the way of same-sex marriage, marijuana and the mohawk — it’s something that a handful of people freak out about but that the rest of us have long since come to accept.
Continue reading the main story
RELATED COVERAGE
President ***** on Tuesday. Some advocates said this week that they saw a paradox in the president’s policy. *****’s Immigration Plan Could Shield Five MillionNOV. 19, 2014
A building site last month in Dallas. Construction is concentrated in Texas and three more states.Job Growth for Hispanics Is Outpacing Other GroupsMARCH 8, 2015
On Money: In Greenbacks We TrustFEB. 27, 2015
Scratch the surface, though, and you’ll pretty quickly find that many Americans are closer to my grandfather’s way of seeing things than they might find comfortable acknowledging. I am referring not to the racial animus but to the faulty economic logic. We generally support immigration when the immigrants are different from us. People in the middle and upper-middle classes don’t mind poorly educated, low-skilled immigrants entering the country. Nor do we mind highly educated professionals coming in — unless, that is, we are in the same profession ourselves. More broadly, those of us advocating an immigration overhaul are basically calling for official recognition of the status quo, through offering legal status to some of the roughly 11.2 million undocumented workers who aren’t going away. Few of us are calling for the thing that basic economic analysis shows would benefit nearly all of us: radically open borders.
When I was growing up in the 1980s, I watched my grandfather — my dad’s stepdad — struggle with his own prejudice. He was a blue-collar World War II veteran who loved his family above all things and was constantly afraid for them. He carried a gun and, like many men of his generation, saw threats in people he didn’t understand: African-Americans, independent women, gays. By the time he died, 10 years ago, he had softened. He stopped using racist and ****phobic slurs; he even hugged my gay cousin. But there was one view he wasn’t going to change. He had no time for Hispanics, he told us, and he wasn’t backing down. After all, this wasn’t a matter of bigotry. It was plain economics. These immigrants were stealing jobs from “Americans.”
Continue reading the main story
RELATED IN OPINION
Do Immigrants Take Jobs From American-Born Workers?JAN. 6, 2015
I’ve been thinking about my grandfather lately, because there are signs that 2015 could bring about the beginning of a truce — or at least a reconfiguration — in the politics of immigration. Several of the potential ********** presidential candidates, most notably Jeb Bush, have expressed pro-immigration views. Even self-identified Tea Party **********s respond three to two in favor of a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Every other group — **********s in general, independents and especially ********s — is largely pro-immigrant. According to Pew, roughly as many people (18 percent of Americans) believed in 2010 that President ***** was a ****** as believe today that undocumented immigrants should be expelled from the United States. Of course, that 18 percent can make a lot of noise. But for everyone else, immigration seems to be going the way of same-sex marriage, marijuana and the mohawk — it’s something that a handful of people freak out about but that the rest of us have long since come to accept.
Continue reading the main story
RELATED COVERAGE
President ***** on Tuesday. Some advocates said this week that they saw a paradox in the president’s policy. *****’s Immigration Plan Could Shield Five MillionNOV. 19, 2014
A building site last month in Dallas. Construction is concentrated in Texas and three more states.Job Growth for Hispanics Is Outpacing Other GroupsMARCH 8, 2015
On Money: In Greenbacks We TrustFEB. 27, 2015
Scratch the surface, though, and you’ll pretty quickly find that many Americans are closer to my grandfather’s way of seeing things than they might find comfortable acknowledging. I am referring not to the racial animus but to the faulty economic logic. We generally support immigration when the immigrants are different from us. People in the middle and upper-middle classes don’t mind poorly educated, low-skilled immigrants entering the country. Nor do we mind highly educated professionals coming in — unless, that is, we are in the same profession ourselves. More broadly, those of us advocating an immigration overhaul are basically calling for official recognition of the status quo, through offering legal status to some of the roughly 11.2 million undocumented workers who aren’t going away. Few of us are calling for the thing that basic economic analysis shows would benefit nearly all of us: radically open borders.
Comment