Donald Trump’s characteristically blunt remarks on immigration have, predictably, provoked widespread outrage from foreign governments and the media, but they raise an important issue that needs serious discussion.
The issue is not whether some countries are, or are not—to use the colorful language attributed to the president—“shitholes.” As much as their governments may protest, the people so desperate to leave these countries might well agree with Trump’s characterization. The issue is, rather: Who should be allowed to immigrate to the United States?
In calling for more Norwegians, the president presumably meant that immigrants should be well-educated people who can contribute to our high-tech economy, rather than low-skilled, poorly-educated people from other nations. (Or at least, that’s the most charitable interpretation.)
Whether or not Trump realizes it, to some extent the current immigration policy already reflects his perspective. Corporations apply for H1B work visas on behalf of foreign citizens whom they would like to hire, and 85,000 of these work visas are granted each year. Many of the recipients work for high-tech firms, though they are more likely to be from India than Norway.
On the other hand, up to 50,000 immigrant visas are granted annually to people who win a lottery “drawn from random selection among all entries to individuals who are from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.”
Even the title of this program—the “Diversity Immigrant Visa Program”—signals the politically correct thought behind it. Now, diversity may sometimes be an appropriate goal, but there is no good reason why the population of the United States should reflect the proportions of peoples from the various nations of the world. Much less is there a reason to penalize peoples who are already well-represented in the United States—such as Mexicans—in favor of immigrants from nations with fewer people already in America. (The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program discriminates against Mexican applicants.)
And once these lottery winners are in the United States, they can apply for visas for immediate family members, which creates the so-called “chain migration.” This “Diversity” program is simply absurd. Trump is right. It should be abolished.
The president would presumably expand the work visa program to take up the slack. And although this view enjoys broad public support, I think it’s the wrong approach. Our universities produce many people capable of working in high tech, and if the needs of this sector were more widely known, they would produce more. Contra Trump, we do not need more educated, middle-class people in America. What we really need is unskilled labor.
A large chorus insists that there is no room in our high-tech, post-industrial economy for unskilled workers. The best refutation of this claim is the 11 million or so undocumented workers who have found employment in America and remain here. You may never have knowingly hired an undocumented worker, but if you have had work done on your house or garden, chances are good that you benefited from their labor. There are many jobs that Americans simply will not do. Immigrants have traditionally filled these needs; they continue to do so. Whatever the president’s rhetoric, the practical fact is that undocumented, unskilled laborers find jobs and opportunities in the United States that they could never have found in the “shitholes” they left.
On the other hand, America has not been fair to these undocumented workers—or to ourselves. We allow them to come here and to work, but we deny them the right to become citizens. We want and need unskilled labor, but are unwilling to apply minimum wage laws to immigrants or to extend social welfare benefits. Hence, immigration remains in limbo. We face a permanent underclass that does not learn the language or integrate into the larger society. This is not the way to sustain a democracy.
The solution is to build a wall, but allow some amount of immigration of the unskilled. If we cannot adequately check on their criminal and health records when they enter, we should monitor them once they are here. Perhaps new immigrants should be exempted from social welfare benefits. The point is that we need to control immigration, not prevent it. We may need to limit the number of immigrants to some annual quota, but the level of skill should not be the criterion.
In the early twentieth century, the United States accepted millions of immigrants. These people worked hard and prospered, and they also built up the nation. They were deeply appreciative of the opportunities that America afforded them and, therefore, deeply patriotic. Their children became the Greatest Generation—who fought the Second World War and came home to build a thriving postwar economy.
By contrast, while the well-educated, middle-class people from Europe, India, and elsewhere who receive work visas probably appreciate the opportunity to live and work in the United States, they are less likely to form the same attachment to the country. And their children less likely to have the same motivation to advance themselves.
The path for a return to American greatness is through more immigrants—especially of the kind President Trump dismissed.
Edward Halper is a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Georgia.
