The Problem with Amy Wax's Immigration Argument | National Review - 0 views
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Here’s the argument in a nutshell
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Immigration policy should take culture into account, and the culture that most closely matches our own comes from Europe and the “First World.” Depending on how you define the “First World” (lots and lots of people live in China and Japan), that region is mostly white. So, proper immigration policy will result in more white immigrants even if the intent isn’t to bring in more whites.
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There’s quite a bit of evidence that nonwhite immigrants (including nonwhite immigrants from developing countries) do very well in a key measure of American assimilation — economic industry
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The bottom line is that skilled immigrants do well in the United States no matter where they’re from.
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American culture and European culture have been drifting apart for decades on a key metric — religiosity
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The intentional Europeanization of American immigration would represent the forced secularization of American culture.
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American culture is so powerful that assimilation is the natural (but not immediate) immigrant process. It’s not the “dirt” that’s magical, but the ideas and opportunity that exist on this dirt are extraordinarily potent. They’ve been potent for more than two centuries, and they remain potent still.
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At the same time, it’s prudent to recognize that unregulated mass waves of immigration can and do create unacceptable hardships on communities, straining safety nets and creating economic and cultural disruptions. A nation has to have borders, and it has to admit immigrants only at a sustainable and sensible rate.
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Since skilled immigrants do well regardless of their race or country of origin, we should bias our system in their favor while continuing the American tradition of compassion for refugees fleeing oppression abroad