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Talk radio and cable news commentators insist that immigrants are overpopulating the United States, stealing jobs, depressing wages, stretching our social services, filling our prisons, and not assimilating.
Don't believe it, says Wall Street Journal editorialist Jason Riley. In Let Them In, he puts today's pitched immigration debate in historical perspective and exposes such claims as overblown when they're not simply counterfactual. Like the nineteenth century immigrant groups from Europe and Asia, today's newcomers from Latin America play an essential role in America's prosperity.
Riley explains how a liberal immigration policy is consistent not only with our traditions and morals but also with a more secure U.S. By providing more legal ways for people to immigrate here to work, we will reduce illegal entries and free up border security resources to concentrate on real threats. But an open-border policy is also in our economic interests. Immigrants, including low-skill immigrants, are a net gain to America. They help facilitate flexible labor markets, which increases overall productivity. Immigrants also keep our workforce younger and stronger than our overseas competitors. The human capital they provide is vital if the U.S. is to retain its edge in a twenty-first-century global marketplace.
Ultimately, open immigration is an American tradition that has served us quite well over the past two centuries and should continue. Today's migrants aren't different, just newer. We seal the border at our peril.
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