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By William A. Rusher Immigration policy, these days, is all but indiscussible. The only politi cal bloc that has seemed concerned about it is the so-called “paleoconser vatives,” and when their spokesman Pat Buchanan raised the issue in his primary campaign against George Bush he was widely scolded as a rac ist for wondering whether a million Zulu immigrants to Virginia would adapt culturally as well as a million Englishmen. The reason for the widespread in difference to the problem isn’t hard to find. For one thing, Hispanic immi grants — by far the largest group in recent decades — were preceded here by earlier waves that acquired citi zenship, entered our politics, and have worked hard to lower the remaining barriers against Hispanic immigra tion The process is now self-replicat ing, and Hispanic voters constitute a bloc that no politician in many states dares to ignore. Moreover, since Hispanics have thus far tended to vote Democratic, they have become one of that party’s famous collection of “victimized” mi norities, along with blacks, gays, American Indians and women, and a generous immigration policy has be come a fixture in every Democratic national platform and a shibboleth in every liberal editorial office. But Republicans and conservatives are far from innocent in this matter. Powerful economic interests have long opposed any serious attempt to block the illegal Hispanic immigrants who, for peanuts, do most of the stoep labor on Southern and Western Warning about immigration is timely farmlands. And libertarian econo mists enthusiastically endorse, at least in theory, unfettered immigra tion across national borders as a nec essary condition of global free trade. So it is a matter of considerable im portance that the June 22 issue of Na tional Review, America’s leading journal of conservative opinion, con tains a powerful article by Peter Bri melow, a senior editor of Forbes, call ing for a serious reconsideration of our current immigration policies. Brimelow points out that American history records successive ebbs and flows in the immigration tide. We are currently in the midst of a huge in flow, triggered by the Immigration Act of 1965. Sen. Ted Kennedy pledged at the time that “our cities will not be flooded with a million im migrants annually. Under the pro posed bill, the present level of immi gration remains substantially the same. ... Secondly, the ethnic mix will not be upset. .. Contrary to the charges in some quarters, (the bill) will not inundate America with immi grants from any one country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa and Asia.” As Brimelow observes, “Every one of these assurances has proved false. Immigration levels and surge upward are now running at a million a year. Immigrants do come predomi nantly from one sort of area — 85 percent of the 11.8 million legal im migrants arriving in the United States between 1971 and 1990 were from the Third World, 44 percent from Latin America and the Caribbean, 36 per cent from Asia. .. Above all, the American ethnic mix has been upset. In 1966 the U.S. population was 88.6 percent white; in 1990 it was only 75.6 percent white — a drop of 13 percent age points in 30 years. Brimelow ranges authoritatively over the whole field, discussing just how “necessary” immigration is to the economy (Japan has done very nicely with almost none) and precise ly how “beneficial” it is to American society (there are new “mafias” com es Russian Jews, Hong Kong Chinese, Colombians and Iraqi Chris tian Chaldeans). Along the way he skewers such immigration enthusi asts as Julian Simon, Ben Wattenberg and Abe Rosenthal. This is an emotional issue, and it is almost too late to act, thanks to the pressures of those already inside the gates. What’s more, there must al ways (and rightly) be some immigra tion, and I myself would favor a con tinued warm welcome for immigrants from Asian countries where family values and the work ethic are strong. But Peter Brimelow’s warning is keep indeed. © 1992 NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN THE CONSERVATIVE ADVOCATE RUSHER WILLIAM A.
Newspaper Details
Marshall Chronicle
Marshall, Michigan, US
Tue, Jun 30, 1992
Page 2
Full Page
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USA 01 Jul 2026
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