warning: policital issue
To be fair, you all have warning that this is an anti-anti immigration post. You'll also notice that I don't allow comments on my posts, so this will be a one sided argument. So if you choose to continue to read this post, please keep in mind, these are my views and don't get yourself all worked up over it. Forgive the double negative anti-anti immigration, but I use that term because it isn't that I'm promoting immigration, but I'm against this being one of the top political issues on the republican agenda. To get my political orientation out there, I'm republican and I'm planning to vote for Obama this election. So of my 5 readers, probably only 2 of you are still reading this.
Generally, I'm quiet when it comes to political discussions. Everyone has the right to choose what they believe, and usually I give inaccurate information when I engage in those heated discussions (I can't remember everything off the top of my head, plus lets face it, no one ever changes their views. If anyone starts to loose the argument, they just end up going home and research to find more validation for their previous belief. See previous post: "Feelings: a political Defense").
The best way I feel to present my views, is to present a rebuttal to the common anti-immigration comments (AIC) I have crossed. Now keep in mind that their are some evidences that support the AIC, but the purpose of this blog is to emphasis that there are arguments in support of anti-anti immigration.
Immigration
------
AIC: Crime goes up
Ryan's comments: I refer to an article published by Kathleen Kingsbury, in Time magazine titled "Immigration: No Correlation With Crime", 2/27/08
The article points out various statistics but the main one that gets the point across is "first-generation Mexican immigrants were 45% less likely to engage in violence than third-generation Americans. This pattern continued into the second generation, which was 22% less likely to be violent."
Kristin Butcher said it best "From a public safety standpoint, there would be little reason to limit immigration,".
AIC: Immigration is bad for the economy
Ryan's Comments: I'm sorry, but this is absolutely not true. From a personal myopic perspective, my time with Wal-mart, I learned that Latin American products is one of the fastest growing assortments at a Wal-mart store. In my marketing classes, the biggest discussion was how the Latin American demographic rejuvenated the failing "Mall" layout for retailers. We are talking about billions of dollars worth of sales catered to this specific demographic. All of this money is being generated into our economy. Most economists agree that immigration is good for the economy. It benefits the upper and middle class. Granted they do provide a little downfall for the lower class, but the benefits overall for the economy are greater (isn't it the democrats that care more about the lower class, come on fellow republicans, get with it (I'm being sarcastic with this comment, in case that was missed)). I could go on and on about the economic benefits that immigration has created, but I refer everyone to a well written article that was published in the LA Times.
Illegal -- but Essential, by David Streitfeld.
AIC: I don't care that you're here, just learn our language
Ryan's Comments: First off, English is not the official language of the United States (majority, but not official). In fact, English came about because a bunch of different cultures mixed.
The only reason you want them to learn a new language, is because you don't want to learn their language. Why...because it's hard. But remember, it's far harder for them to be in the U.S. not knowing English than it is for you to be in the U.S. not knowing Spanish. Give them a break. Most are trying really hard to learn. These are real people you are talking about.
AIC: Well, they shouldn't be working in the restaurant industry
Ryan's Comments: Ok, you have three options to choose from. 1) Put up with someone that is trying to learn the language. 2) Put up with waiting in line for 30 minutes, vs. 3 minutes 3) Put up with double the prices
Personally, I pick number 1 (which most businesses do). When you're talking about many of these service industries, it's easy to say "the company shouldn't put these people in service positions, cause I can't understand them". But when you think about the logistics behind it. They don't have a choice. Our unemployment rate is extremely low right now. We don't have enough people to fill these positions. Immigrants (legal and illegal) are filling this need. If they aren't available, the restaurant has two options. One is make their pay a lot more competitive (which means higher food prices), or two is sacrifice turnaround time. Who wouldn't pick the first option (I also wanted to point out, that during my time in Brazil, it was difficult to learn the language and I was always appreciative to those who showed patience in helping me learn the language).
Well, those are the only key points I wanted to touch on. Yes, yes, I know plenty of you have a lot of rebuttals, most probably from some spam e-mail from a buddy of a buddy. But I just wanted to emphasize that there is a lot more to it with immigration. Do we need to improve it. Yes. But our economy is about to collapse because of poor financial decisions Americans made. Do you really want to focus on getting rid of a support beam that is keeping us semi afloat?
Generally, I'm quiet when it comes to political discussions. Everyone has the right to choose what they believe, and usually I give inaccurate information when I engage in those heated discussions (I can't remember everything off the top of my head, plus lets face it, no one ever changes their views. If anyone starts to loose the argument, they just end up going home and research to find more validation for their previous belief. See previous post: "Feelings: a political Defense").
The best way I feel to present my views, is to present a rebuttal to the common anti-immigration comments (AIC) I have crossed. Now keep in mind that their are some evidences that support the AIC, but the purpose of this blog is to emphasis that there are arguments in support of anti-anti immigration.
Immigration
------
AIC: Crime goes up
Ryan's comments: I refer to an article published by Kathleen Kingsbury, in Time magazine titled "Immigration: No Correlation With Crime", 2/27/08
The article points out various statistics but the main one that gets the point across is "first-generation Mexican immigrants were 45% less likely to engage in violence than third-generation Americans. This pattern continued into the second generation, which was 22% less likely to be violent."
Kristin Butcher said it best "From a public safety standpoint, there would be little reason to limit immigration,".
AIC: Immigration is bad for the economy
Ryan's Comments: I'm sorry, but this is absolutely not true. From a personal myopic perspective, my time with Wal-mart, I learned that Latin American products is one of the fastest growing assortments at a Wal-mart store. In my marketing classes, the biggest discussion was how the Latin American demographic rejuvenated the failing "Mall" layout for retailers. We are talking about billions of dollars worth of sales catered to this specific demographic. All of this money is being generated into our economy. Most economists agree that immigration is good for the economy. It benefits the upper and middle class. Granted they do provide a little downfall for the lower class, but the benefits overall for the economy are greater (isn't it the democrats that care more about the lower class, come on fellow republicans, get with it (I'm being sarcastic with this comment, in case that was missed)). I could go on and on about the economic benefits that immigration has created, but I refer everyone to a well written article that was published in the LA Times.
Illegal -- but Essential, by David Streitfeld.
AIC: I don't care that you're here, just learn our language
Ryan's Comments: First off, English is not the official language of the United States (majority, but not official). In fact, English came about because a bunch of different cultures mixed.
The only reason you want them to learn a new language, is because you don't want to learn their language. Why...because it's hard. But remember, it's far harder for them to be in the U.S. not knowing English than it is for you to be in the U.S. not knowing Spanish. Give them a break. Most are trying really hard to learn. These are real people you are talking about.
AIC: Well, they shouldn't be working in the restaurant industry
Ryan's Comments: Ok, you have three options to choose from. 1) Put up with someone that is trying to learn the language. 2) Put up with waiting in line for 30 minutes, vs. 3 minutes 3) Put up with double the prices
Personally, I pick number 1 (which most businesses do). When you're talking about many of these service industries, it's easy to say "the company shouldn't put these people in service positions, cause I can't understand them". But when you think about the logistics behind it. They don't have a choice. Our unemployment rate is extremely low right now. We don't have enough people to fill these positions. Immigrants (legal and illegal) are filling this need. If they aren't available, the restaurant has two options. One is make their pay a lot more competitive (which means higher food prices), or two is sacrifice turnaround time. Who wouldn't pick the first option (I also wanted to point out, that during my time in Brazil, it was difficult to learn the language and I was always appreciative to those who showed patience in helping me learn the language).
Well, those are the only key points I wanted to touch on. Yes, yes, I know plenty of you have a lot of rebuttals, most probably from some spam e-mail from a buddy of a buddy. But I just wanted to emphasize that there is a lot more to it with immigration. Do we need to improve it. Yes. But our economy is about to collapse because of poor financial decisions Americans made. Do you really want to focus on getting rid of a support beam that is keeping us semi afloat?
posted by ryan at
8:33 AM
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