Americans First – Citizenism as a Moral Principle to Regulate Immigration

[EastMed]

It should be obvious that the primary obligation of a government--any government, not just the US--is to protect and service its own citizens first, and do nothing to hurt them.

I share the view that government should serve the interests of its citizens.

However, you should know your government was subject to a corporate takeover in the 1970's. Extensive asset stripping ensued.
It was a shrewd investment by the 1%.

 

[cocksucker4use]

Some countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand that I know of, place logical constraints on immigrants. Canada's new points system is heavily weighted to age and language proficiency in the context of caps on immigration. To immigrate to Australia, a family has to have an average age of thirty. Grams can come at 60, but their has to be a new born to off set the family average age. 55 is the limit for immigration to New Zealand, as 95% of the population is on the public health scheme. In the US, we have focused on the Mexican immigrants. Most of these are young people who want to work, and will take jobs Americans won't. Other groups from Eastern Europe/Russia have come beyond retirement age and due to a lifetime of poor healthcare and bad habit, end up sucking inordinate amounts of resources from our healthcare/welfare system without ever contributing. I worked in healthcare administration for some years, and have seen families fly terminally ill members in as tourists, and drop them at the ER. They are "Manged", or processed for welfare benefits and cared for, for the remainder of their lives. Some even come from wealthy families who write checks for the first couple of months until the relatives benefits are in place to take over. We cannot eliminate immigration, but we should focus on accepting young, healthy and willing to work and contribute to society and the economy. If we don't immigration becomes an intolerable burden rather than an infusion of fresh talent and ability.

 

[Benvolio]

The liberals/Democrats have lost sight of the principle that the government should care for their own people first. The problem is that immigrants traditionally vote Democrat. Therefore, with enough immigrants, the Democrats can subjugate the rest of us permanently to their will.
Therefore, immigration trumps all else.
Immigration is more important than helping our own unemployed
;more important than helping our own poor including minorities,
more important than the environment
more important than health care
more important than solving the crime problem.
more important than education.

And of course, they have devised an ideology designed to foreclose discussion. It is a Democrat dogma of politically correctness that anyone negative on immigration is racist, nativist, xenophobic, white supremest. Never mind that our existing racial minorities are hurt most of all by immigration.
And they have marshalled a host of irrelevant arguments to rationalize their partisan policy:
We are told that are a nation of immigrants. So what if times have changed and it is now harmful. The US used to have slavery and Indian wars, would that be good today? And remember in those golden days of (mostly white European) immigration, the black people were held down by discrimination in favor of the immigrants. And it continues today. Why is that glorious past binding on us today.
Americans, we are told, don't want immigrant jobs like driving taxis and trucks, construction work, cleaning hotel rooms, therefore we should just push America's poor and unemployed aside and forget about them (or dream that some day in the sweet bye and bye, we will educate all those Americans pushed aside to be highly paid white collar workers, but first, continue the immigration full bore.)
And, the ever popular claim that when we pay minimum wage to immigrants and they spend it, the economy has expanded, forgetting how much it costs the taxpayer to provide them services. More importantly forgetting that we can achieve better economic growth by recruiting our own poor and unemployed, allowing them to rise up the economic ladder. Remember also that with foreign competition, our economy is not going to expand as it has, and perhaps not at all, How is ever expanding population consistent with environmentalism?
How about a compromise; call a moratorium on immigrant to give our poor and unemployed a chance.
.

 

[JayHawk]

I accept the static nature of the fertility rate in the US, but why (in contemporary America) is it necessary to the nation’s economic success for the population to continually increase?

Because markets have to grow somehow and a corporation is not deemed profitable unless it is increasing profit shares. One of the main methods is a growing market.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't know that it is necessary. Or even if it were necessary that it is feasible. I just think the economy is currently set up to thrive only when more people are added to it every year. I think we need to back away from that model and figure out how to be more prosperous each year with the same number of people. (I'd apply that globally, not just to the US.)

I agree. We need a new model because perpetual growth is impossible.

 

[Benvolio]

Our own poor and unemployed provide the potential for a great deal of economic growth, as well as employed people who are not improving their situation. We still have 7.5% unemployment and only 47% of adults have full time jobs.
How do individuals benefit from economic growth of the country as a whole?

 

[opinterph]

From a micro-economic standpoint, it can be argued that many unskilled foreign workers who immigrate to the US view the relatively poor wages, job insecurity, and unpleasant working conditions they can expect to find as preferable to the poverty and unemployment situation in their home country. Thus, the economic motivation for their immigration functions to perpetuate a secondary labor market in the US and thereby enables employers to drive down wages and working conditions even more.

Viewed from the other side of the equation, this situation correlates with the Marxist view that rich capitalists exploit immigrants as a means to reduce labor costs. Ergo, a secondary labor market can have the effect of diluting the influence of native workers who seek higher wages or better working conditions.

 

[bankside]

I agree. We need a new model because perpetual growth is impossible.

Perpetual population growth is impossible, but I hope we're not throwing in the towel on growth of prosperity.

 

[opinterph]

The US is still the easiest place on planet earth to start a business but immigrant businesses get a truckload of government subsidies. That should change. It should be an equal lottery of subsidized business interest.

Perhaps you are confusing “immigrant” with “minority.”

The US Department of Commerce operates the Minority Business Development Agency, which is the only federal agency created specifically to foster the establishment and growth of minority-owned businesses in America. The goal is to achieve parity of opportunity for minorities that have been marginalized by the US political economy and faced challenges in starting and growing business enterprises.

Programs​

For purposes of determining eligibility to receive MBDA services, an MBE is defined as a business concern that is owned or controlled by the following persons or groups of persons that are also U.S. citizens or resident aliens admitted for lawful admission to the United States:

• African Americans
• Hispanics
• Asian and Pacific Islander Americans
• Native Americans (including Alaska Natives, Alaska Native Corporations and Tribal entities)
• Asian Indians
• Hasidic Jews

Petition Pending: Arab Americans

 

[Benvolio]

What possible justification could there be for giving subsidies to immigrants rather than existing citizens. They obviously have not been victims of anything here. Giving benefits to them weakens programs for the benefit of existing minorities. A black person would have to compete with new arrivals. The governments duty is to help citizens first, rather than hurting them.
Just more Democrat pandering to the immigrant vote, at the expense of Americans.

 

[Rolyo85]

Maybe because no culture survives without stimulating outside input?

 

[opinterph]

What possible justification could there be for giving subsidies to immigrants rather than existing citizens[?] They obviously have not been victims of anything here. Giving benefits to them weakens programs for the benefit of existing minorities.

Immigrants who are US citizens or resident aliens ARE a part of “existing minorities.”

The goal is equal opportunity. The Minority Business Development Agency operates under a relatively modest budget and serves primarily to offer guidance and advice. That can involve helping minorities locate sources of capital, but most businesses started by recent immigrants are better capitalized than the average small business and utilize family savings as an integral part of their financing. They are slightly less likely to employ additional persons, but their efforts provide an obvious contribution toward US employment and productivity.

 

[JayHawk]

Perhaps you are confusing “immigrant” with “minority.”

The US Department of Commerce operates the Minority Business Development Agency, which is the only federal agency created specifically to foster the establishment and growth of minority-owned businesses in America. The goal is to achieve parity of opportunity for minorities that have been marginalized by the US political economy and faced challenges in starting and growing business enterprises.

Programs​

For purposes of determining eligibility to receive MBDA services, an MBE is defined as a business concern that is owned or controlled by the following persons or groups of persons that are also U.S. citizens or resident aliens admitted for lawful admission to the United States:

• African Americans
• Hispanics
• Asian and Pacific Islander Americans
• Native Americans (including Alaska Natives, Alaska Native Corporations and Tribal entities)
• Asian Indians
• Hasidic Jews

Petition Pending: Arab Americans

Perhaps, many of the immigrants fit a minority category?

 

[pat grimshaw]

Maybe because no culture survives without stimulating outside input?

Whose fault is that? Whose responsibility is it if people forget their own language and culture?

 

[JayHawk]

Whose fault is that? Whose responsibility is it if people forget their own language and culture?

It has nothing to do with peopls losing their 'culture' it has to do with a country starving for a workforce willing to work.

 

[opinterph]

Perhaps, many of the immigrants fit a minority category?

Perhaps, that is a reasonable rebuttal.


Food for thought:

The US population under age 18 is projected to become majority-minority in the next 5 or 6 years. That means all people in that age group except for those that are non-Hispanic, single-race white will outnumber those who are non-Hispanic, single-race white.

International Migration is Projected to Become Primary Driver of U.S. Population Growth for First Time in Nearly Two Centuries (US Census Bureau)​

What is the racial composition of the immigrant population?


Of the foreign born in the United States in 2011, 48 percent reported their race as white alone, 8 percent as black, 25 percent as Asian alone, and 16 percent as some other race; more than 2 percent reported having two or more races.

How many immigrants in the United States are of Hispanic origin?


In 2011, 47 percent of the 40.4 million immigrants (18.8 million) reported having Hispanic or Latino origins.

How many Hispanics are immigrants?


The majority of Hispanics in the United States are native-born US citizens. Of the 52 million people in 2011 who identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino, 36 percent (18.8 million) were immigrants.


Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States (Migration Information Source)

Immigration Statistics (US Department of Homeland Security)

 

[pat grimshaw]

Jay, I think you and I have interpreted #32 in two different ways

 

[JayHawk]

Yeah, I think since this is a discussion revolving around immigration and its effect on America first, I dont think your idea of lost culture is germane or the intent of Rolyo.

he is saying that our country cannot survives without an influx of fresh workers and talent from elsewhere.

 

[Benvolio]

Whose fault is that? Whose responsibility is it if people forget their own language and culture?

Again, you are saying is, in effect, forget about the millions of poor and unemployed Americans. Leave them forever at the bottom. Meanwhile, import different people willing to work for a generation, until they too discover that they can live on welfare.

 

[Benvolio]

First, we are told that immigrants do not compete because they only take jobs that Americans do not want, picking strawberries, driving taxis, construction, janitorial work etc. That is why we need them.
But the instant they cross the border, they are downtrodden minorities, entitled to special benefits and subsidies, to allow them to compete with Americans, to "level the playing field". The purpose of the level playing field is to allow them to compete more successfully against Americans, i.e., to take opportunities from them, including our own minorities.

 

[kallipolis]

Would we be having this discussion were the majority of migrants currently entering the United States originating from Northern Europe?

That Hispanics would appear to be the subject matter/the contentious stream of illegals might suggest that racist profiling has an influence.