On February 9 the Department of Homeland Security released an estimate which showed that the illegal immigrant population declined by about 1 million in the two years from January 2007 to January 2009. However, there is no direct government or other reliable survey of the number of illegal immigrants living in the United States, and any conclusion that DHS draws from other data is subject to misinterpretation.
It is no doubt true that the current rate of illegal immigration inflow is lower than it has been (but not negative!) because jobs are scarcer due to our severe economic downturn. However there is no logical reason to expect that the reduced availability of jobs will cause many illegal immigrants to give up all the advantages of living in the U.S. and return to their native countries where the job prospects are even worse than in the U.S., where corruption and crime are rampant, where public services are poor or are absent, where public welfare is very limited or unavailable, and where public education and the life prospects for their children are dismal.
If anything, the reduced availability of jobs is pressuring some illegal immigrants to move to those sections of our country where there are fewer competing illegal immigrants in order to obtain low-end jobs. For those immigrants who are temporarily out of work, there is also the possibility of doubling up in living space with their many friends and relatives also living here. In either case, more immigrants would be on the move but they would not be moving out of the country!
To quote from a March, 2009 publication of The Inter-American Development Bank entitled "Remittances in times of financial instability": "Evidence from focus groups and surveys commissioned by the MIF [multilateral Investment Fund] and the Inter-American Dialogue suggest that immigrants are extremely capable of coping with adversity. These coping strategies include reducing the amount of money they spend on themselves, working longer hours or multiple jobs in the face of decreasing wages, shifting sectors because of declines in sectors such as manufacturing and construction, moving to areas with higher labor demand.... migrants, especially the undocumented, move from one state to another in response to local enforcement measures. Despite the cumulative effects of the economic, housing, and credit crises, it is only as a last resort that immigrants will return to their home countries. They will first exhaust all other options." [blogger's emphasis added]
It should also be noted that there are some strong motivations for the Obama administration to underestimate the extent of the illegal immigration problem. Understating the extent of illegal immigration helps to convey the impression that the Administration is enforcing our immigrations laws when in fact the opposite is true (see November 21 blog entitled “Obama’s Immigration Law Enforcement Farce”). It also makes it seem that illegal immigrants will deprive fewer less educated Americans of low-end jobs if there are fewer illegal immigrants in the country. The administration would also like to further these deceptions in an effort to get Congress and the public go along with its major objective of getting Congress to approve an amnesty for nearly all of today’s illegal immigrants. As noted in the October 2 blog entitled “The Elephants in the Democrats’ Back Room” there are a number of unstated political reasons for the Democrats to favor amnesty and non enforcement of our immigration laws.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Australian Immigration Policy
Following Great Britain’s 1983 legislation to eliminate birthright citizenship, in 1986 Australian significantly curtailed birthright citizenship by illegal immigrants. After 1986 to qualify for Australian citizenship at birth a newborn had to have at least one parent who was an Australian citizen. If neither were, a child born in Australia could still obtain citizenship on his 10th birthday if he spent the first 10 years of his life in Australia.
Ireland eliminated birthright citizenship in 2005 and New Zealand in 2006. Today few developed countries other than the United States automatically award birthright citizenship to children whose parents are both illegal immigrants.
On February 8th the Internet edition of the Wall Street Journal carried an article with an Associated Press byline entitled “Australia Tightens Immigration Rules.” The gist of the article is that the current administration in Australia is imposing new immigration rules to more favor immigrants whose skills are in short supply in Australia. The opening line of the article states: “Australia tightened its migration rules Monday in favor of English speakers and professionals [whose skills are needed], saying the country has been attracting too many hairdressers and cooks and too few doctors and engineers."
The present U.S. legal immigration system discourages the immigration of individuals with advanced educational backgrounds and skills that would benefit our country. Instead of giving preferences to the best and brightest immigrants whose talents are in short supply here, since 1965 our legal immigration system gives most preferences to the close relatives of citizens. Since it is the recently legalized citizens, including many millions of formerly illegal immigrants legalized by amnesties and other means, who have by far the largest number of close relatives living outside the United States, the typical characteristics of our legal immigrants are now mirroring that of our illegal immigrants – poor, low-skilled, and little educated. Moreover, the amount of permitted legal immigration, including the admission of refugees and asylum seekers who also tend to be poor and unskilled, has been trending up over time and is now running about twice the level it had been prior to the 1990s. The American born children of illegal immigrants, after they reach 21 years of age, also have the right to sponsor foreign relatives for legal immigration into the U.S.
When will the government of the U.S. wake up and largely restrict legal immigration to those having the skills we need, as well as shut off the illegal immigrant magnet of automatic birthright citizenship?
Ireland eliminated birthright citizenship in 2005 and New Zealand in 2006. Today few developed countries other than the United States automatically award birthright citizenship to children whose parents are both illegal immigrants.
On February 8th the Internet edition of the Wall Street Journal carried an article with an Associated Press byline entitled “Australia Tightens Immigration Rules.” The gist of the article is that the current administration in Australia is imposing new immigration rules to more favor immigrants whose skills are in short supply in Australia. The opening line of the article states: “Australia tightened its migration rules Monday in favor of English speakers and professionals [whose skills are needed], saying the country has been attracting too many hairdressers and cooks and too few doctors and engineers."
The present U.S. legal immigration system discourages the immigration of individuals with advanced educational backgrounds and skills that would benefit our country. Instead of giving preferences to the best and brightest immigrants whose talents are in short supply here, since 1965 our legal immigration system gives most preferences to the close relatives of citizens. Since it is the recently legalized citizens, including many millions of formerly illegal immigrants legalized by amnesties and other means, who have by far the largest number of close relatives living outside the United States, the typical characteristics of our legal immigrants are now mirroring that of our illegal immigrants – poor, low-skilled, and little educated. Moreover, the amount of permitted legal immigration, including the admission of refugees and asylum seekers who also tend to be poor and unskilled, has been trending up over time and is now running about twice the level it had been prior to the 1990s. The American born children of illegal immigrants, after they reach 21 years of age, also have the right to sponsor foreign relatives for legal immigration into the U.S.
When will the government of the U.S. wake up and largely restrict legal immigration to those having the skills we need, as well as shut off the illegal immigrant magnet of automatic birthright citizenship?
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