They taught us in school that the US is a nation of immigrants which was beautifully built by immigrants. But what they never go into detail about & didn’t make a plaque for at the Statue of Liberty is the flow of immigrants came in waves with periods of fewer immigrants coming in between. Once the waves got too big our forefathers would put a stop to it or slow it down for a decade or two. Too many people now a days are just too ignorant of history & economics & assume the US can have unbridled immigration forever because they think that is how it has always been. There’s 7+ billion people on the planet & most of them would qualify for asylum if they can get to the US to ask. The numbers just don’t work. The U.S needs to pump the breaks on immigration for a little while while we work out some economic/domestic issues IMO. Places like France & other places in Europe didn’t do that & the demographics & national structure has been changed forever. Europe is screwed.
Below is a funny story from the Telegraph where the president of Turkey has instructed his former countrymen & other refugees from the Middle East to have 5 children each to change the EU to the way it is supposed to be. Good luck with that Norway!
Ain’t gonna happen. Immigration and wages are inexorably tied and our oligarchs are satisfied with the way our dysfunctional immigration system is operating. Keep herding sheep to the trough. They couldn’t care less whether their profits are generated by sheep spending government hand outs or sheep pending money earned through honest labor. They’re shearing sheep. Who cares about their provenance.
The suckers in the middle will pay the bill thinking their votes make a difference while their focus is manipulated toward some nonsensical BS. How long can it last?
Funny. Reminds me of the history of the Irish in NY City and Boston 75-100 years ago. In NY the city finally decided to make the Irish police officers to combat the problem. NY has a big Irish legacy in it police department now. When I first started sailing there were still a few old signs over the doors of a couple bars in Boston that said “No Irish Allowed”. To some I suppose this might have seemed discriminatory but being of Irish descent myself I completely understood.
It goes back way before then. Funny how history is not taught now. The Irish were the first slaves brought to New England. (not counting the local tribes enslaving other tribes) The Irish were too white and escaped too easily. They were then shipped to Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Haiti, Honduras and many other islands to be bred with African slaves. The facts are not taught now because it don’t fit the narrative.
Funny. I was taught a slightly different version which is that when the Irish came to America to escape the famine, they were a rough bunch, troublemakers and petty criminals. They were discriminated against and no one would hire them. Consequently they gravitated to civil service jobs that nobody else wanted; firefighters and cops.
Yes indeed. The shores of New England were once littered with the slave ships that brought the Irish to America in shackes but they were repurposed to bring in African slaves because the Irish were always getting drunk and telling stories instead of working.
From what I’ve seen it’s not that simple. In many cases it’s been shown the opposite is true. In this particular case how does unskilled immigration lower wages of licensed officers?
The Irish made up a large voting block and patronage was the name of the game then as now. Best way for politicians to get votes was to give jobs, police and fire jobs among them, civil service was begun later. Actually the Irish police were little better than the Irish gangs, often allied with them. Teddy Roosevelt tried to clean things up.
The Irish had Catholicism going against them too. The Muslims of their day
There is a very interesting book written by a LSU professor called “White Trash” that details the story of early immigration to the USA. I highly recommend it.
I don’t think unskilled immigration affects skilled professions such as licensed officers but I think it lowers the wages of uneducated or unskilled workers.
