Okay, the border is a mess. Even the news media are beginning to admit it. But we still need more immigrants because Americans aren’t making enough babies and are not growing the talent we need to sustain the country.
The U.S. birth rate has been declining since 2005 and is at its lowest point in more than a century. Changing priorities – fewer people getting married and deciding to have children –may be the most likely explanation. Increasing support for abortion and sex-change surgery will depress the birth rate a little more. The U.S. population is growing at the slowest rate since the nation’s founding and immigration is driving what little growth we’re seeing.
We’ve always been a nation of immigrants, of course. In the Nineteenth Century the U.S. welcomed the poor, tired, huddled masses of Europe and Ireland. We needed lots of unskilled labor to settle the frontier, fight the Civil War and work in the factories.
Things are different today because the United States now breeds its own poor, tired, huddled masses. American students have significantly lower academic test scores than their peers in most developed nations. More than three-quarters of young Americans are unfit for military service. Only 62% of working-age Americans are working or looking for work, a lower labor participation rate than most countries.
We still need unskilled labor but have a greater need for workers with critical skills: doctors, nurses, teachers, construction workers, airline pilots, truck drivers and more. As Americans become less employable, opening the border to Central American migrants who are even more poorly educated will not produce the workforce we need.
It’s not just a labor shortage: The United States is becoming a dumber country. In addition to declining school test scores, an increasing number of problems facing our society are self-inflicted: the result of bad decisions by poorly qualified people in bumbling institutions. If we don’t have enough smart people to build a railroad, keep the streets safe and the lights on, or even keep baby formula on the shelves, how can we expect to remain competitive as a nation?
So we don’t just need immigrants, we need immigrants with brains. It is unlikely that the next Elon Musk is wading across the Rio Grande. We need to be proactive in attracting immigrants who are educated, productive and have the potential to move the country forward.
Instead of favoring the underclass of Central America, we need to attract immigrants from the many countries that have better schools than we do such as Poland, Vietnam and Japan. Offering green cards to foreign-born graduates of U.S. universities would be a good start. The merit-based immigration systems in countries like Canada, Denmark and Australia may be worth emulating. We already hire teachers from the Philippines to fill vacancies in U.S. schools. How about recruiting physicians from Britain and Cuba to offset our doctor shortage?
We ought to start enlisting immigrants in the Armed Forces now to offset a serious recruiting shortfall. Immigrants have fought in every war in United States history and there is no reason why they should not serve now. Most of the illegal immigrants being welcomed at the Southern border are military-age young men. It should be possible to recruit the cream of this crop for military service, screen them for criminal ties, give them a crash course in English and offer them legal status once they’ve completed satisfactory military service.
The United States needs to rejuvenate its population in both quantity and quality. We can easily do so because at least 150 million people across the world want to move here. You’d think our government would seize the opportunity to select immigrants who are best equipped to help the country prosper instead of letting Mexican smuggling cartels decide who crosses the border.
Why we need more immigration
Okay, the border is a mess. Even the news media are beginning to admit it. But we still need more immigrants because Americans aren’t making enough babies and are not growing the talent we need to sustain the country.
The U.S. birth rate has been declining since 2005 and is at its lowest point in more than a century. Changing priorities – fewer people getting married and deciding to have children –may be the most likely explanation. Increasing support for abortion and sex-change surgery will depress the birth rate a little more. The U.S. population is growing at the slowest rate since the nation’s founding and immigration is driving what little growth we’re seeing.
We’ve always been a nation of immigrants, of course. In the Nineteenth Century the U.S. welcomed the poor, tired, huddled masses of Europe and Ireland. We needed lots of unskilled labor to settle the frontier, fight the Civil War and work in the factories.
Things are different today because the United States now breeds its own poor, tired, huddled masses. American students have significantly lower academic test scores than their peers in most developed nations. More than three-quarters of young Americans are unfit for military service. Only 62% of working-age Americans are working or looking for work, a lower labor participation rate than most countries.
We still need unskilled labor but have a greater need for workers with critical skills: doctors, nurses, teachers, construction workers, airline pilots, truck drivers and more. As Americans become less employable, opening the border to Central American migrants who are even more poorly educated will not produce the workforce we need.
It’s not just a labor shortage: The United States is becoming a dumber country. In addition to declining school test scores, an increasing number of problems facing our society are self-inflicted: the result of bad decisions by poorly qualified people in bumbling institutions. If we don’t have enough smart people to build a railroad, keep the streets safe and the lights on, or even keep baby formula on the shelves, how can we expect to remain competitive as a nation?
So we don’t just need immigrants, we need immigrants with brains. It is unlikely that the next Elon Musk is wading across the Rio Grande. We need to be proactive in attracting immigrants who are educated, productive and have the potential to move the country forward.
Instead of favoring the underclass of Central America, we need to attract immigrants from the many countries that have better schools than we do such as Poland, Vietnam and Japan. Offering green cards to foreign-born graduates of U.S. universities would be a good start. The merit-based immigration systems in countries like Canada, Denmark and Australia may be worth emulating. We already hire teachers from the Philippines to fill vacancies in U.S. schools. How about recruiting physicians from Britain and Cuba to offset our doctor shortage?
We ought to start enlisting immigrants in the Armed Forces now to offset a serious recruiting shortfall. Immigrants have fought in every war in United States history and there is no reason why they should not serve now. Most of the illegal immigrants being welcomed at the Southern border are military-age young men. It should be possible to recruit the cream of this crop for military service, screen them for criminal ties, give them a crash course in English and offer them legal status once they’ve completed satisfactory military service.
The United States needs to rejuvenate its population in both quantity and quality. We can easily do so because at least 150 million people across the world want to move here. You’d think our government would seize the opportunity to select immigrants who are best equipped to help the country prosper instead of letting Mexican smuggling cartels decide who crosses the border.
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