Comments Elsewhere

birch barlow: “Utter nonsense. Large-scale immigration of poor people makes the problems associated with welfare programs and other government-financed programs far worse. Poor, unskilled immigrants put a disproportinate strain on the welfare system and the justice system for that matter. They are also far less able to pay for the services they use.”

This isn’t an argument for immigration restriction. It’s an argument for lobbying to deny welfare services to immigrants. Actually a substantial amount of public aid is already off-limits to both documented and undocumented immigrants; it’s not like you couldn’t rally support for a move like this. The Left would complain, but they’ll complain about your “shoot ‘em on sight and build a fence” ideas too.

birch: “How do you propose to solve the problem of poor immigrants not being able to support the infrastructure they use?”

Try not to indulge in anti-immigrant fabulism. Poor immigrants pay federal and state gasoline taxes just like everyone else.

birch: “The fact that current voters vote for leftist policies at an alarming rate is not an excuse to bring in more people who will, on average, vote even more in favor of socialist policies and have children who will vote for such policies.”

aleph0: “Razib’s non-economic argument is, IMHO, particularly significant when it comes to the responsibility the nation has to it’s native-born low-skilled workforce. This is relevant because massive low-skilled labor immigration directly reduces the ability of native born low-skilled workers to find productive employment. Regardless of the morality of welfare, reducing the ability of already low-skilled workers to find productive work increases the demand for welfare. A country has a duty to the citizens of its polity, low-skilled included, that it does not for non-citizens.”

I await birch’s principled denunciation of such shamelessly socialist attitudes from the anti-immigration corner.