SHUT THE GOLDEN DOOR
Dimitri Vassilaros
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
June 27 2008
PA
Immigrants to America have not changed much. But their new homeland
sure has.
That’s why Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for
Immigration Studies, says the golden door must be slammed shut to
illegal and legal aliens.
In his just-published book, "The New Case Against Immigration,"
Mr. Krikorian, the grandson of Armenian immigrants, says he’s looking
at the entire elephant in America’s living room with his eyes wide
open — as opposed to blind people examining one part each of the
beast to guess what stands before them.
"Many critics of immigration are scattershot; they pick something from
column one or two," Krikorian says. For example, some claim illegal
immigration has created a crushing burden on hospitals that don’t
refuse to treat anyone in need, even though many illegals don’t pay
for the "free" health care.
"They are all facets of the same problem," Krikorian says. "Immigration
(legal and illegal) is not compatible with modern society," he says. In
this post-industrial age, a high level of education trumps a strong
back carrying a good work ethic.
Yes, so-called grunt work is there for those who want it. But there’s
precious little opportunity for advancement. "It’s a mismatch of 19th
century-style workers in a 21st-century economy," he says.
But what about second-generation immigrants? Surely they will catch up.
The second generation does do better than their parents, Krikorian
says. As before, there are similar increases in income rates from
first- to second-generation families. However, now immigrants start
so much further behind that even their kids’ progress is not enough
to help them catch up, he says.
They are starting further and further behind, so they are that much
further behind than the rest of America, Krikorian says.
And while it’s self-evident the immigrant is motivated to be in
America, he’s not necessarily motivated to be an American, Krikorian
says. When in Rome, … .
"Assimilation is different today," he says. Even a very poor immigrant
does not have to say adios to the old country, thanks to phones, e-mail
and other technology. There are immigrants who do what Krikorian calls
"transnational living," living in two countries during the same time —
for example, coming to America to work part of the year and spending
the rest of it in, say, Mexico with family and friends.
"People never lose touch the way they used to," Krikorian says.
"We have lost our cultural self-confidence to persuade people to join
and assimilate," he says. "My mom is the daughter of immigrants. The
Massachusetts public schools taught her to be an American. But what
are kids learning now? It sure as heck is not memorizing the Gettysburg
Address or ‘Hail, Columbia.’
"Now they are learning, at best, to be ambivalent about America and,
at worst, that it’s a terrible place. Why would kids want to join
that?" Krikorian says.
The mind-numbing array of government programs offered "free"
to seemingly every alien, legal or not, is another reason to end
immigration before the welfare state bankrupts the United States,
he says.
Krikorian wants his book to remind Americans what Abraham Lincoln
said: "As our case is new, so must we think anew and act anew. We
must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."