Lessons
of immigration Immigrants continue to come to America in record numbers. The Register yesterday reported how in Orange County Hispanics now are the largest ethnic group for people under age 30. Today in Washington Secretary of State Colin Powell is meeting with Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda and Interior Minister Santiago Creel to deal with immigration issues. And Mexican President Vicente Fox will meet in Washington in September with President Bush. Many potential policies are being discussed, including a "guest worker'' program under which immigrants would be issued work ID cards, bringing many of those currently here illegally into the official economy and making it easier for them to go back and forth to their home countries. Critics say that this really would be a first step toward a blanket amnesty such as the 1986 reform bill that granted amnesty to 2.7 million undocumented immigrants. Our concern is that assimilating this many immigrants only works in a free economy and that America, California and other countries -- especially Mexico -- need to take strong steps to keep economic growth on pace. We remember how the greatest recent anti-immigrant sentiment in our state occurred during the deep recession of the early 1990s, when immigrants were accused of "stealing our jobs.'' That wasn't true; the post-Cold War aerospace contraction and bad government policies, such as increased regulations and taxes, were the real culprits. But when times turn bad people look for scapegoats. "One of the strengths of California is its level of immigration,'' Gregory Fossedal told us; he's the chairman of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, a think tank that has studied the benefits of immigration. He also has close ties to Mexico and was one of the few analysts who predicted the disastrous 1994 peso devaluation. "Immigrants are a positive benefit to the economy,'' he added. "At the high end, 28 percent of U.S. patents are by immigrants. But even at low-wage levels they provide services that would cost much more if the immigrants weren't here.'' What about the recession America now seems to be sliding into? "There are other causes of recession, but if you try to clamp down on immigration, you'll make the recession worse.'' However, he warned that we need to "make sure people are rewarded for working and are not subsidized for not working.'' He favors the guest worker program to encourage immigrants to get work in the official economy and continuing to end bilingual education to encourage assimilation. As to Mexico, we pointed out how dismayed we've been to hear that new President Fox has ignored campaign promises to cut taxes and even has been hinting at tax increases. "It's got to change its own policies,'' Mr. Fossedal replied. "It's losing assets. Some of the most hard-working people come here. As pleasant as the U.S. is for immigrants, it's hard for them to pick up and leave their families.'' Unfortunately, California in particular is not grappling with the
influx of immigrants. The Legislature just increased taxes $1.2 billion
a year, probably killing thousands of jobs, and little is being done
to expand the housing stock. America long has worked as an "immigrant
nation'' because its free, growing economy helped everybody prosper.
This is not the time to forget that lesson. |
