No matter which prominent side wins in our immigration debates, the U.S. loses for a simple reason: The contest pits people who hate the point against people who miss the point.
On one side are the large-I Immigrationists, individuals who behave as if immigration is always good, always necessary, must never be questioned and must be the one constant in an otherwise ever-changing universe of policy; they’re usually identified as “leftists.” On the other are small-i immigrationists, people who believe immigration is generally good, generally necessary, should never be questioned in principle and must in some form be the one constant in an otherwise ever-changing universe of policy; they’re usually identified as “conservatives.”
The debate between the two sides often goes like this: Leftists welcome inundation with even uneducated, unskilled foreigners (as long as the aliens aren’t sent to their neighborhood; see Martha’s Vineyard et al.) with the argument “Our strength lies in our diversity!” Conservatives counter this by reassuring all and sundry “I’m all for immigration!” “But,” they add, “it should be done legally and be merit based, with possession of economically valuable skills a prerequisite for entry.”
The problem with this is that it’s the battling of a nonsensical argument with a one-dimensional argument. After all, there’s a name for entities defined merely by the job-related role they can perform: robots. There’s also a name for thus characterizing people: a Marxist mistake.
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