Importing poverty

[goodsamaritan]

Here's a good column from today's Washington Post about the effect of immigration on poverty rates in America.

(First paragraph plus link for copyright reasons):

"The government last week released its annual statistical report on poverty and household income. As usual, we -- meaning the public, the media and politicians -- missed a big part of the story. It is this: The stubborn persistence of poverty, at least as measured by the government, is increasingly a problem associated with immigration. As more poor Hispanics enter the country, poverty goes up. This is not complicated, but it is widely ignored."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...090401623.html


I'm kind of torn on immigration. I'm not particularly worried about losing my job to immigrants or anything like that, but I really don't like being surrounded by poor people, and immigration definitely increases the number of poor people I have to look at on a daily basis. Also, I live in a major city and am starting to get really annoyed at the increasing number of people that I have to deal with who can't speak English and are totally unapologetic about it. And as the number of Hispanic immigrants in the US increases, their incentives for learning English are decreasing. I've had conversations with Spanish speakers who roll their eyes at me or get surly when they can't understand my English. I don't like this for obvious reasons.

On the other hand, I understand that most immigrants come from are just here to work hard and make better lives for themselves.

Although what I have said is not politically correct, I'm just trying to be honest and I bet a lot of people in here have similar thoughts, whether you are pro or anti immigration. I think a little more honesty in this area would be helpful.

[JMa]

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

[adios]

[ QUOTE ]
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

[/ QUOTE ]

And vote for the politicians that provide them with the most government handouts.

From the article:

A second reason is that immigration affects government policy. By default, our present policy is to import poor people. This imposes strains on local schools, public services and health care. From 2000 to 2006, 41 percent of the increase in people without health insurance occurred among Hispanics. Paradoxically, many Hispanics are advancing quite rapidly. But assimilation -- which should be our goal -- will be frustrated if we keep adding to the pool of poor. Newcomers will compete with earlier arrivals. In my view, though some economists disagree, competition from low-skilled Hispanics also hurts low-skilled blacks.

Italics added for emphasis. Is it any wonder that the Democrats are pushing for amnesty for illegals; open borders more or less; and universal health care coverage?

[Ron Burgundy]

[ QUOTE ]
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

[/ QUOTE ]

BUT THOSE POOR PEOPLE ARE UGLY! I don't like looking at them, it's depressing. How am I supposed to enjoy my cappucino and bagel at Starbucks every morning if I have to look at a bunch of brown people with dirty clothes? And I can't even ask them to shine my shoes or something because they don't speak English!

I mean yeah, my ancestors came here because of the exact same reasons, and they probably didn't speak English either. But they were white, so that's ok.

[Copernicus]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

[/ QUOTE ]

BUT THOSE POOR PEOPLE ARE UGLY! I don't like looking at them, it's depressing. How am I supposed to enjoy my cappucino and bagel at Starbucks every morning if I have to look at a bunch of brown people with dirty clothes? And I can't even ask them to shine my shoes or something because they don't speak English!

I mean yeah, my ancestors came here because of the exact same reasons, and they probably didn't speak English either. But they came here legally, so that's ok.

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP

[goodsamaritan]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

[/ QUOTE ]

BUT THOSE POOR PEOPLE ARE UGLY! I don't like looking at them, it's depressing. How am I supposed to enjoy my cappucino and bagel at Starbucks every morning if I have to look at a bunch of brown people with dirty clothes? And I can't even ask them to shine my shoes or something because they don't speak English!

I mean yeah, my ancestors came here because of the exact same reasons, and they probably didn't speak English either. But they were white, so that's ok.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's easy to make jokes when you live within the shelter that our immigration laws provide. One of the main reasons that the US is such pleasant country to live in is that there is a large middle class and relatively few poor people. If you've ever been to countries with vast wealth disparities and large numbers of poor people you would know that they are not very pleasant places to live in. What do you think would happen if the US completely opened it's borders? Forget about Mexico, millions and millions of poor and uneducated people from all over the world would flood the US and complete overwhelm its infrastructure. Major US cities would turn into Rio De Janeiro and Calcutta overnight. Have you ever been to those places? People in cities like that literally urinate and defecate in the streets and the wealthy have to drive around in bullet proof SUVs and live in fortresses. I hear a lot of people in hear talk big game about open borders, but I guarantee most of them are in denial about what the consequences of open borders would be.

[AWoodside]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

[/ QUOTE ]

BUT THOSE POOR PEOPLE ARE UGLY! I don't like looking at them, it's depressing. How am I supposed to enjoy my cappucino and bagel at Starbucks every morning if I have to look at a bunch of brown people with dirty clothes? And I can't even ask them to shine my shoes or something because they don't speak English!

I mean yeah, my ancestors came here because of the exact same reasons, and they probably didn't speak English either. But they were white, so that's ok.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's easy to make jokes when you live within the shelter that our immigration laws provide. One of the main reasons that the US is such pleasant country to live in is that there is a large middle class and relatively few poor people. If you've ever been to countries with vast wealth disparities and large numbers of poor people you would know that they are not very pleasant places to live in. What do you think would happen if the US completely opened it's borders? Forget about Mexico, millions and millions of poor and uneducated people from all over the world would flood the US and complete overwhelm its infrastructure. Major US cities would turn into Rio De Janeiro and Calcutta overnight. Have you ever been to those places? People in cities like that literally urinate and defecate in the streets and the wealthy have to drive around in bullet proof SUVs and live in fortresses. I hear a lot of people in hear talk big game about open borders, but I guarantee most of them are in denial about what the consequences of open borders would be.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, to be fair, most people here that advocate open borders also are opposed the welfare state and government provided infrastructure in general. I agree that having both would create massive problems, but it's pretty easy to see that the potential ills of open immigration would be drastically reduced if we got rid of our ever-expanding welfare state.

[goodsamaritan]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

[/ QUOTE ]

BUT THOSE POOR PEOPLE ARE UGLY! I don't like looking at them, it's depressing. How am I supposed to enjoy my cappucino and bagel at Starbucks every morning if I have to look at a bunch of brown people with dirty clothes? And I can't even ask them to shine my shoes or something because they don't speak English!

I mean yeah, my ancestors came here because of the exact same reasons, and they probably didn't speak English either. But they were white, so that's ok.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's easy to make jokes when you live within the shelter that our immigration laws provide. One of the main reasons that the US is such pleasant country to live in is that there is a large middle class and relatively few poor people. If you've ever been to countries with vast wealth disparities and large numbers of poor people you would know that they are not very pleasant places to live in. What do you think would happen if the US completely opened it's borders? Forget about Mexico, millions and millions of poor and uneducated people from all over the world would flood the US and complete overwhelm its infrastructure. Major US cities would turn into Rio De Janeiro and Calcutta overnight. Have you ever been to those places? People in cities like that literally urinate and defecate in the streets and the wealthy have to drive around in bullet proof SUVs and live in fortresses. I hear a lot of people in hear talk big game about open borders, but I guarantee most of them are in denial about what the consequences of open borders would be.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, to be fair, most people here that advocate open borders also are opposed the welfare state and government provided infrastructure in general. I agree that having both would create massive problems, but it's pretty easy to see that the potential ills of open immigration would be drastically reduced if we got rid of our ever-expanding welfare state.

[/ QUOTE ]

The problems that I was talking about in that last post have nothing to do with the welfare state. Millions of poor and unskilled people flooding this country would cause problems regardless.

[BCPVP]

Supporting policies that will ensure they stay poor and unskilled seems downright anti-social and criminal to me.

[jesusarenque]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

[/ QUOTE ]

BUT THOSE POOR PEOPLE ARE UGLY! I don't like looking at them, it's depressing. How am I supposed to enjoy my cappucino and bagel at Starbucks every morning if I have to look at a bunch of brown people with dirty clothes? And I can't even ask them to shine my shoes or something because they don't speak English!

I mean yeah, my ancestors came here because of the exact same reasons, and they probably didn't speak English either. But they came here legally, so that's ok.

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a horrible argument, and I see it made all the time. The reason our ancestors came "legally" is because back then there were few, if any, restrictions on immigration. Basically, they just had to show up and they were allowed in. If we opened the borders again, then everyone would "come legally."