Some Thoughts on Immigration and Its Downside

An academic study released in 2019 found that the children of poor immigrants succeeded in climbing the income ladder much better than the children of poor native-born parents.  This was not only true for immigrants from India, Asia and Europe, but also for those from Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, countries former President Trump labelled ‘shithole’ countries.

The authors theorized that the tendency for these immigrants to live in areas where there are more employment opportunities as well as their willingness to move wherever new opportunities arise might explain some of this difference.  There is also the fact that in some cases, the immigrant parents take jobs at a lower level than they had in their mother country and are not really at a comparable socioeconomic level to the poor in our country.  This may significantly impact the probability of success for their children.

 

In addition to the so-called poor immigrants who achieve social mobility you also have a significant number of immigrants who arrive in the USA as students or skilled workers to fill jobs that might not otherwise be filled.  This is especially true in areas of technology and science.

 

The USA has always prided itself on attracting the best and brightest from across the world.  Our universities eagerly pursue bright international students who are willing to pay the tuition or who are particularly capable, and most of those will stay and work in the USA.  They are also more likely to pursue postgraduate education than native born students and then progress into academia. A whopping 22% of post-secondary education teachers are immigrants!

 

In a world that is beginning to experience population decline in most industrialized nations, immigration is a method to counteract this trend and sustain economic growth.  However, this solution for the so-called first world comes at what certainly must be a high cost for the non-industrialized countries. 

 

For not only are these nations losing their best aspiring students and skilled workers to the lure of the industrialized world, but it is highly probable that the poor emigrants that flee these countries are in most cases a highly motivated and industrious group that constitute a major loss for the mother country as well.  Is it any surprise that many countries remain impoverished and in a failed state when their most valuable resource is being siphoned off?

 

Worldwide competition for people may contribute to innovation and economic prowess in the winning countries, but it also exacerbates many of the problems that plague our increasingly globalized world.  There was a time when the USA could remain blissfully unaffected by the chaos and deprivation outside its borders, but that time is past.  If we cannot find a way to help developing nations retain their best, brightest and most motivated then we will all ultimately suffer.