Debunking immigration myths

Jeb Bush and Robert Putnam convincingly debunk the idea that Hispanic immigrants are somehow more of a threat to American identity than previous waves of immigration. Cleverly, they quote a famous American leader on the immigration problem:

Few of their children in the country learn English. The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages. . . . Unless the stream of their importation could be turned . . . they will soon so outnumber us that we will not preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious.

No, that wasn’t Lou Dobbs or some Tea Partier. It was Benjamin Franklin, in 1753, talking about German immigrants.

After laying out the case that all immigrant waves follow similar patterns (isolated enclaves at first, but then bilingual 2nd generation children and then eventually intermarriage and full assimilation, while retaining important cultural heritages), Bush and Putnam make three suggestions:

• Low-cost English classes for immigrants
• Invest in public education, to foster a shared national identity
• Assist communities experiencing rapid immigration, especially schools and hospitals, which bear the brunt of the costs while everyone shares in the economic benefits

The English classes, especially, seem like a no-brainer. If you are willing to hold up a sign that angrily says “Learn English!”, you should be willing to put up a sign that says “Learn English here”.

Arizona’s immigration law

From Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update:

Myers: This week, Arizona signed the toughest illegal immigration law in the country which will allow police to demand identification papers from anyone they suspect is in the country illegally. I know there’s some people in Arizona worried that Obama is acting like Hitler, but could we all agree that there’s nothing more Nazi than saying “Show me your papers?” There’s never been a World War II movie that didn’t include the line “show me your papers.” It’s their catchphrase. Every time someone says “show me your papers,” Hitler’s family gets a residual check. So heads up, Arizona; that’s fascism. I know, I know, it’s a dry fascism, but it’s still fascism.

Update: Hulu wouldn’t play nice with WordPress for some reason, so you can see the video here.

UK = the Grinch

From BoingBoing:

Santa Claus was prevented from giving presents to the imprisoned children of asylum seekers at the notorious Yarl’s Wood detention centre by private security guards. Yarl’s Wood is a privately run prison whose inmates are UK immigrants who arrived seeking asylum, but whose claims have been denied. They are dragged out of bed in the dead of night and stuck in mesh-windowed vans without their belongings and without the chance to say goodbye to their loved ones, and then detained in terrible conditions that have been decried by human rights advocates, doctors, psychiatrists and other experts. Their “crime” is trying to escape torture, privation, and disaster.

The rent-a-cops at Yarl’s Wood told the Anglican church’s leading expert on Father Christmas (dressed in a Santa costume) that he couldn’t enter the centre to give the children presents. They also blocked the canon theologian at Westminster Abbey. Then they cancelled a later scheduled visit with detained families at the centre.

I couldn’t get the video to embed, but here’s the link. Reminds me of Children of Men.

Myths about American Opportunity from Brookings

This is very interesting because it comes from the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning think-tank. There are others there, but these caught my eye:

Myth 1: Immigrant Workers And Offshoring Jobs Cause Poverty And Inequality

Although immigration and trade are often blamed, a more important reason for our lack of progress against poverty and our growing inequality is a dramatic change in American family life. Almost 30 percent of children now live in single-parent families, up from 12 percent in 1968. Since poverty rates in single-parent households are roughly five times as high as in two-parent households, this shift has helped keep the poverty rate up; it climbed to 13.2 percent last year. If we had the same fraction of single-parent families today as we had in 1970, the child poverty rate would probably be about 30 percent lower than it is today.

Myth 2: More Money For Families Results In Better Opportunities For Children

Our research shows that if you want to avoid poverty and join the middle class in the United States, you need to complete high school (at a minimum), work full time and marry before you have children. If you do all three, your chances of being poor fall from 12 percent to 2 percent, and your chances of joining the middle class or above rise from 56 to 74 percent.

Myth 3:  It’s Important To Cut Waste And Abuse In The Federal Budget

Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid – along with interest on the debt threaten to crowd out all other spending in a few decades.

HT: Daniel Indiviglio at The Atlantic