Immigration

You have read little about immigration on G&S for a very simple reason. Our speciality is telling you what we think, and on this topic we have no idea on God's Earth what we think.

One thing we do think is that this debate is characterized by much nonsense thrown around from every side.

To pick just a small corner for illustrative purposes, we offer the simplification that the problem, at base, involves a great huddled mass sponging off the largess of the generous American welfare state.

But TigerHawk observes:

I am sure that illegal aliens, like other poor people, are a burden on social services in areas where they concentrate. This isn't because they are illegal, though. It is because they are poor. Poor people are a load, which is why we should want as few of them as possible. Of all poor people, though, illegal immigrants, who have gone to great lengths and at least some peril to cross into the United States and who then do very tough work at abominable wages, strike me as the least likely to remain poor for the long haul. In general, they are struggling against their poverty in the great American tradition. We are a nation that has grown wealthy in the struggle against poverty, and should not turn our back on that successful strategy today.

Just so.