Nuevo America

Stephen Green, of Vodkapundit fame, has a new TCS Article up. It is all about immigration and the changing of cultures.

The least-rational fear is the cultural one -- the fear that all those Chaves-loving Latinos will somehow spoil our freedom-loving Anglo culture. From Victor Davis Hanson's respectable Mexifornia to the fevered rants of American nativists, we're told time and again that the influx of South American immigrants is forever altering American culture. Hanson fears (along with the usual tales of crime and unassimilation) that by allowing untold numbers of people in from Down There, we're giving South American dictators a safety valve, and thus subsidizing their existence. Pat Buchanan tells us that Mexicans aren't just stealing our jobs, they're also poisoning our democracy with their casual attitudes towards autocracy and enthusiasm for social-welfare programs. Both writers forget or ignore two important things: 1. No culture is stable. 2. Culture shock cuts both ways.

I agree with pretty much everything Stephen says here. I believe that American Culture, American values, are strong enough to handle any number of immigrants. I also believe that the people who want to come to America are exactly the kind of people we need in America. Immigrants are by and large motivated, hard workers, and very interested in creating a better life for themselves and their families. They are the kind of people that look at ways to solve a bad situation, rather than wait for someone or something to solve it for them. Illegal Immigration does bring with it implicit security concerns. I am for stopping this and gaining control of our borders. At the same time though, I am also for increasing immigration quotas (or doing away with them altogether). Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free.