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May 8, 2006
The immigration debate
Two pieces recently in the Washington Post highlight some of the issues in the immigration debate. The first is a front page story - more an essay - about past debates - "U.S. Immigration Debate Is a Road Well Traveled." The piece describes the saga of the industrial era's age of migration - as it affected New York City.
The bitter arguments of the past echo loudly these days as Congress debates toughening the nation's immigration laws and immigrants from Latin America and Asia swell the streets of U.S. cities in protest. Most of the concerns voiced today -- that too many immigrants seek economic advantage and fail to understand democracy, that they refuse to learn English, overcrowd homes and overwhelm public services -- were heard a century ago. And there was a nub of truth to some complaints, not least that the vast influx of immigrants drove down working-class wages.
Yet historians and demographers are clear about the bottom line: In the long run, New York City -- and the United States -- owes much of its economic resilience to replenishing waves of immigrants. The descendants of those Italians, Jews, Irish and Germans have assimilated. Manhattan's Little Italy is vestigial, no more than a shrinking collection of restaurants.
The second piece was in Sunday's Post - an article by Richard Florida on the rise of creative economy in the Washington area - "A Creative Crossroads." Not surprisingly, he ranks the area's tolerance, diversity and openness as a great strength:
Open and diverse, the region has long been a bastion of great black thinkers, writers, musicians and business people. It's a lure for recent college graduates and young singles; 25- to 34-year-olds make up 15 percent of the population. New immigrants are flocking to outlying suburbs in Montgomery, Arlington and Fairfax counties.
According to Florida's data, the Washington area ranks 9th in the percentage of foreign born population.
Immigration powered the US rise as industrial nation. Now, they are helping to push the US into the I-Cubed Economy. Let me repeat what I said earlier: it is usually the more ambitious, better skilled, more entrepreneurial persons who come to the US. This was pointed out in another Post front page story today - "Vibrant Village Quieted As Salvadorans Go North." These workers (and their children) represent an important pool of talent. If we treat them as throw-away labor, the opportunity to harness that talent will be wasted. We need to find away to make all jobs - not just the "brainy" jobs - contribute to the I-Cubed Economy.
Immigration is one of those stealth competitiveness issues. We need to get it right. And one of the ways to get it right is to learn from - and not simply repeat the angry rhetoric - from the past. The story in today's Post is a good way to start learning.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at May 8, 2006 8:06 AM
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