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Comment by notadoomer236 | Hacker News Reader

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There has always been high immigration in the US, its a country built on immigration!! Like others have said, the current levels are not higher then in the past, its just the political parties that are using it to hide the real problems of ultra rich and corporations abusing the country. In regards to changing society; what is changing? The language? Again, the US is built on immigrants. Are the Italian - Americans in NY going to stop being Italian - Americans all of a sudden? No, they will continue being who they are; maybe they will pick up another language or some new recipes for their cookbooks.

> political parties that are using it to hide the real problems of ultra rich and corporations abusing the country

Yup, same in Europe. There's constant fear mongering with racist undertones in the media about illegal immigrants and refugees, it's driving people crazy and violent against each other. All the while they're conveniently distracted from the root of their social ills.

Europe has the "pie" in form of considerable (by standards of most of the rest of the world, including US) welfare benefits. I don't think it's particularly surprising that people who have access to it today don't want to share. The legal vs illegal distinction is really mostly about that - when it's legal, it can be significantly curtailed (and the same people who are against illegal immigration saying "just go through the process" tend to also be in favor of making that process much more difficult).

What welfare benefits? Are you living 50 years ago?

Unemployment insurance, free healthcare, and some form of guaranteed retirement income are nearly universal. To maintain these at the same levels, you need a certain proportion of people who work in relatively high-paid jobs and pay correspondingly high taxes. Which is precisely why immigration systems in most developed countries emphasize skilled immigration.

They keep shrinking and shrinking.

I regret that comment. I was upset and shouldn’t have posted it.

But what I would say is: countries have distinct cultures, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to preserve them, which implies controlling the rate of immigration from different cultures. The U.S. would be quite different if we replaced half the population with people from Iran, China, or even England. There is a happy medium.Pros and cons.

I'd argue that legal immigration is changing the US more than illegal immigration because illegal immigration largely originates from other countries in the Americas and therefore more easily fits in with the USA's existing history and culture.

Is the reason why America is filled with illegal migrants (millions allowed till now) because the US power structure wants to decouple from China and will need cheap labour to work in onshore factory?

why would they take illegal migrants when you could just put the factories in Mexico? which is what all of the "nearshoring" is about, e.g. chip manufactories in Tijuana

low cost, low overhead, no risks due to INS rounding up your people, and no tariffs due to NAFTA.

the reason they want the in the US is to work in services to keep costs down, because overall wages have not gone up and the costs of everything domestically needs to trend down -- and that means cheap labor.

> And it’s changing our society.

Ah that's the problem. But you're ok with the fact that your grandpa immigrated and changed the society as well?

Why?

standard racist trope among certain Americans; makes me sick

OUR society? Who do you mean by we/our? Who do you think built this country? Immigrants, as free men or slaves, from all over the world.

Our society kind of sucks as it is. Nice to get some new families in the neighborhood .

> It’s in our face. And it’s changing our society.

I love the irony in this statement.

(Of which I suspect you're completely unaware)

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