Immigration Has Been Very Good to American Democracy

What I say in America's New Map is this:

As a synthetic nation with a multiverse of cultures, America has historically processed?immigrants by first demonizing them as “invaders,” then condemning them as “parasites,” then?criticizing their slow assimilation, then mocking their entry on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder, then begrudging their ascent, then accepting them into sports and entertainment, then?admitting they are “not so bad once you get to know them,” then allowing them into the corridors of power, and finally admiring their “immigrant journey" ... the longer immigrants live in the United States, the more they resemble the native-born on health, education, marriage, fertility, home ownership, crime, incarceration, and—?most importantly—political preferences, thus refuting the assumption that immigrants equate to a win only for Democrats. As a rule, immigrants come to America seeking not to change it but to preserve it; they come here not to stick out but to fit in.

That's a fairly neutral argument that says immigrants do not damage America's political fabric.

A stronger pro-immigration argument is found in this excellent 纽约时报 op-ed by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, author of the much-acclaimed book The Undocumented Americans. As she puts it so well:

Immigrants believe in the American story about freedom and self-governance. In fact, nobody believes harder than we do. The migrants at the border right now are there because they acted on the belief that we are all born with a God-given right to self-determination. They were willing to risk everything on their belief in liberty, on their belief in the kind of freedom you fight for. Human beings who have known freedom their whole lives cannot fully appreciate it — in the same way that fish cannot really appreciate water ...

The good news is that immigrants can be our secret weapon in the fight against authoritarianism. Immigrants love America in a way that America needs to be loved if it is going to survive [italics mine, as I could not agree more].

Our political disillusionment hasn’t resulted in apathy, but the opposite: We’ve turned it into a longing in the form of the American dream. If love is the choice to hold something dear at the risk of loss and without needing to be loved in return, what else do we call the code of honor by which millions of undocumented people pay taxes and contribute to Social Security every year, knowing they will never see a dime? If faith is the belief in something wonderful without needing to see proof of its existence, how else do we explain the 22-year-long fight of the Dreamers to get a pathway to citizenship?

As I argue throughout America's New Map, I am of the firm belief that to preserve America is to grow America -- both its population and its economy. To stagnate on demographics is to age unduly fast, which is the most direct route to our losing our superpower standing, not so much because of sheer numbers (even as those matter in maintaining our central role in shaping global consumption and definitions of a "good life") but because of sheer will.

Aged nations don't invest. They don't worry about the future, so they desist from trying to shape it for the better. Our world would suffer greatly from our demographic diminishment -- count on it, and both our continued openness to immigration and our renewed willingness to re-open America to new member-states will be key instruments to our retaining our superpower status across this century -- just like both were in the past.

We just have to trust in our own national brand -- the best form of patriotism -- and the still-intense attraction and affection it generates among peoples the world over. Bringing such ambitious believers into our fold can only make our democracy stronger.