Do immigrants and their children make positive contributions to the economy and the nation generally? Yes, says the Wall Street Journal editorial page, a longtime booster of immigration. In a Tuesday editorial, the paper cites the results of the Regeneron Science Talent Search, in which 83 percent of last year’s finalists were children of immigrants. “Immigration literally spawns innovation,” the Journal writes.
Yup. But not all immigrants are equally represented. Of the 40 finalists interviewed by the Journal’s source, 25 were children of immigrants from China and India. Others (apparently one apiece, since 7 were children both of whose parents came from the United States) came from Canada, Cyprus, Iran, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Nigeria. Notice what’s missing from that list? Mexico, the source of the largest number of immigrants in the 1982-2007 quarter-century. Or any other country in the Western Hemisphere except Canada and the U.S.
