Monday, 3 April 2017

The Great Immigration Debate

Pro-Latino Immigration


This is website, which as the name suggests, is an organization seeking to share information on open border policies, which the general slant being very liberal, and pro immigration of almost any kind. The link provided takes us to a list of US specific headings with links to various arguments to open up the US borders. The headings are listed as pragmatic benefits, philosophical arguments, and tradition with various subheadings to go alongside this. Often, the more conservative argument against those who are pro-immigration is that it their arguments are not pragmatic; rather they are simply morally postured and would have an adverse effect on the economy. Here, the points for pragmatism form the liberal point of view are benefit to economy, exaggerations about reductions in wages, exaggeration of criminality, links between immigration and terrorism are incorrect and that immigrants come to work, not claim. One of the links seems to suggest that more developed countries benefit more from immigration as these immigrants will provide labor and entrepreneurship. There is much fault with this as it does not address the cultural differences between various countries, is not specific to the country taking the immigration of where it is coming from. This leaves the argument feeling somewhat hollow despite it being labeled as US specific. It also does not take into account the literacy rate, levels of education, nor does it provide any statistic about Latin immigration having strong potential for entrepreneurship. Sadly, this article attempts to take a pragmatic standpoint on immigration but fails miserably to provide any context, statistics or any well backed up argument.

Anti-Latino Immigration



This article from CFR.org attempts a much more level headed discussion around Mexican immigration, seeking to point out key statistics relevant specifically to the US and Mexico. It does so by providing statistics on population, law, American general consensus from trusted sources, Congressional legislation, Executive orders (Presidential orders), state and local stances, as well as prospect for the future. This article sets itself out to be un-biased, however, the outcome would certainly suggest that the United States has no other option other than to implement controls on immigration, and certainly on illegal aliens. In order to have a sensible debate on the issue, facts and figures are completely essential. Those arguments of moral posture should always be brought to the debate but never considered over statistics and reality. This has distorted the debate massively with the politically correct aiming to brand anyone who seeks control on immigration as a ‘racist’ or a ‘xenophobe’. This article excellently executes thought provoking for liberals and conservatives alike without bridging the gap into being overly biased, much like the first article.

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