Framing Immigration: A Loyal American Must Support Immigration

A Loyal American Must Support Immigration

A loyal American must always support immigration to our country. Anyone who is anti-immigrant is anti-American. If you want to deport our immigrants, you are either very ignorant of the history of our country, or you just hate America. I say this because we became, and we remain the richest and most powerful country in the world because we have always welcomed immigrants.

We Built Our Country With Immigrant Labor

America’s greatness is founded on our hospitality to immigrants. We became a rich and powerful country first by forcing immigration and later by encouraging it. We built our industrial and commercial might using immigrant labor. In 1794, the cotton gin was invented. It made large-scale cotton farming in the American South possible, but we did not have the labor to exploit that possibility. So, through the slave trade, we imported hundreds of thousands of Africans to do the work. We do not usually think of the slaves as immigrants, but they were immigrants who were forced to come here, and a huge share of our country's wealth was created by their labor. Cotton accounted for more than half of American exports before the Civil War, and the wealth created by the cotton trade was later invested in industrial development. We should not be proud of the slavery in our past, but we cannot deny its contribution to our country's wealth.

In the late nineteenth century, the United States was poised to become the world’s greatest industrial and commercial power. We had vast natural resources, endless fertile land and a marvelous water transportation network, but we lacked the labor to develop our industrial capacity. So, we turned again to importing huge numbers of immigrants. Poverty-stricken peasants from all over Europe and China were ready to leave the land that their families had cultivated for centuries to come to the United States.

In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and immigrate to the United States. Fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U. S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity. Others came seeking personal freedom or relief from political and religious persecution, and nearly 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1870 and 1900. 

Research tells us that

The large migration of immigrants to North America allowed for a huge rise in the U.S. economy. Lots of factories started up in large cities like New York, Boston, and Chicago. 

Workers Are Needed to Grow an Economy

Why were immigrants necessary for the development of our industrial economy? The answer is that the amount that any economy can produce is limited by the size of its working population. Each worker produces on average a certain amount of goods or services, and the total that is produced in a country must be the sum of all that is produced by its workers. The total amount that is produced in a country is therefore:

The total product produced by an economy = the average product per worker X the number of workers.

We can increase that total in only two ways. First, we can invest to increase the average product per worker, and second, we can bring in more workers. Increasing the average product per worker takes time. So, in the short or medium run, the only way to increase production is to bring in more workers. From 1865 until 1924, we did just that. We encouraged and even promoted immigration, and we became the richest and most powerful country the world had ever seen.

Industrial Countries Have Aging Populations

Today, we and all of the world’s rich, industrial countries face a shortage of workers due to aging populations. As countries industrialize, families become smaller. Women bear fewer children. Today, in every industrial country including the United States, the number of children born to each woman is less than the number required to maintain the current level of the population. So, every industrial country today has a population which is aging, and that means that there are fewer people of working age.  Except in the United States. Our working population continues to grow through immigration, and because of our hospitality to immigrants, our economy can continue to grow. Our economic growth rate is the envy of the world. We outstrip Europe, and we will eventually outstrip China, as well. We can do that only because we have so many immigrants.

With Immigrants, We Can Grow Our Economy and Remain Rich and Powerful

Because of our immigration, we can grow our economy more rapidly than other countries. We can continue to be the world’s richest country, and we can continue to be the leader of the free world. Without our immigrants, we could not do those things. So, if you want to see our country continue to be great, you must be in favor of immigration. If you are anti-immigrant, you are anti-American. Every loyal American must support immigration to our country.