September 10 , 2010
Immigration Reshaping US and Europe
The unrelenting wave of immigration, much of it illegal, into the US and Europe is a powerful force for change. The US has 10 million illegal immigrants, and how to deal with them and their children is a hot-button topic. The state of Arizona passed a law allowing its local police to check immigration status, a law that has been put on hold by the courts. But clearly there is great concern, particularly among conservatives, that America is being overrun by unwanted, mostly Latino, immigrants.
In Europe, immigration has also changed many of those societies. In Britain and France, immigrants make up almost 10% of the population, and they account for over 5% in Germany, Sweden, Holland, and several other European countries. Many of these immigrants are from Muslim countries. North Africa, Turkey, and South Asia have provided the bulk of these immigrants. Many of them are legal, but illegal immigration, particularly from desperately poor African countries, is rising. What can or should the US or Europe do about this?
Immigration is primarily an economic phenomenon. Immigrants wouldn’t come if there weren’t jobs for them to do. In both the US and Europe, there are certain jobs that are mostly done by immigrants, because the native population will not do them. Jobs such as fast-food service, cooks, cleaners, taxi drivers, construction workers, maids, gardeners, and farm labor. In fact, because immigrants provide all this labor cheaply for the natives, living standards for the native population actually rise. People can afford maids and gardeners who couldn’t before, and hotels and restaurants are cheaper to use because their labor cost is lower. But it would be a mistake to assume that these economies have to have immigrant labor. There are many advanced nations that make do without immigrants doing the unpleasant work. Nations such as Finland or Japan or Norway or Switzerland have very limited levels of immigrant labor. But the price they pay is that those jobs either go undone, or they are filled with native workers at a much higher labor cost. If the US and Europe were willing to enforce workplace rules banning illegal workers, the demand for illegal immigrants could be cut sharply, but business interests actually resist this, as they like the cheap labor.
There are some in the US, and even more in Europe, who are distressed about the rising tide of Africans and Asians and Latinos immigrating into previously ethnically homogeneous countries. Before 1960, except for its 10% black population, the US was almost wholly of European origin. Now, the Anglo share of the US population is less than 70%, and this demographic change is reflected in the election of Obama. There are some Europeans with angst over the changing nature of their societies. And certainly every nation has the right to preserve its culture and identity.
But if we take the longer view, the reason why so many immigrants are trying to come and live in the US and Europe, is because those societies are so wealthy that even those at the bottom live better than the reality of life in the poorest regions of the Earth. This exceptionally powerful economic pull is going to continue for another 20-50 years, until living standards in the Third World rise enough to stop the flow of emigrants, just as few Europeans now move to America.
Europe developed first, and as such the people of Europe received huge benefits. They were able to reach out and colonize the Americas and Australia, and now Europeans account for the majority inhabitants of four of the six inhabited continents. When Europe was poor, millions of Europeans emigrated seeking a better life. Now the shoe is on the other foot, and Europe and the US are receiving immigrants from Asia and Africa and Latin America.
In America, the 10 million illegal immigrants are a huge political issue. Democrats want to give them a path to citizenship, while Republicans want to close the border and stop the further flow. What is needed is a reasonable compromise. These 10 million people will not be rounded up and deported, it is impractical. But they should not be rewarded with citizenship after having jumped the line ahead of millions of people all around the world waiting for the chance of a Green Card.
For illegal aliens who have been in the US for more than two years, they should be offered a path to permanent resident status, but should be barred for life from citizenship. In exchange for this, the Democrats should give the Republicans what they want on securing the border. However, without a much more robust workplace enforcement system it will not achieve the goals Republicans want.
