re: Help me understand the “pro immigration” argument

unfettered immigration has never been good for this country, even the european immigration waves of the 19th century. my family immigrated from Ireland after the civil war. there were two distinct types of immigration, there was specific place immigration after the war, these were to states lightly populated seeking people to homestead and this typically worked out ok, then there was mass immigration typically to the ports of boston, philadelphia and new york and that rarely worked out well. to this day boston still has an irish underclass. mass immigration unleashed a cavalcade of social ills that were unimaginable. drug use, out of wedlock births, men who abandoned families, prostitution, crime and ethnic riots. most first generation immigrants never learned english and never became american citizens remaining impoverished for the rest of their lives. sound familiar?

the term "melting pot" was the name of a play that was popular in the early 1900's a romeo and juliet story about an italian and jewish couple who embrace a shared "american culture" over their separate european cultures. it was teddy roosevelt favorite play, but it was a metaphor for what people hoped would happened not what was happening. in fact if you look at almost all contemporary literature and plays at the time written to be consumed by immigrants, they speaks to the regret of leaving their homelands.

there was a reason that we placed a moratorium on immigration in 1923 and it wasn't because everything was going great.

support for immigration has always fallen into two camps, republican support for cheap labor and democrat support for political power. it has never had wide spread support from native born americans even those children and subsequent generations of immigrants that have to deal with the consequences of unfettered immigration.

One of the arguments would be looking at the current birth rate in the US. Then look at the problems on the horizon with us having a disproportionate older population with the baby boomers entering a later stage in life. Look at the problems this is causing Japan right now. A country gets into problems if the population is disproportionately older than working age.

Some would argue immigrants are more greatful than native born Americans thus work harder and have better priorities. So if you bring in a bunch of immigrants that are willing to work hard then it creates competition and a higher standard of achievement. Native born Americans would have not continue to re-invent themselves instead of getting guaranteed stuff.

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-Immigration restrictions are what ultimately caused the fall of the Roman Empire (heard this from a lefty I work with, haven’t been able to verify this claim)

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This is patently false. It is widely known that Rome's reliance on foreigners in the military and allowing so many foreigners within its borders greatly contributed to its fall. Your lefty coworker obviously doesn't know the story of Alaric.

Lack of intellectual capital. Basically, some citizens are too lazy to work, as recently, people on unemployment make more than people working, and 2., alit of our citizens are to stupid, they can't read or write. Therefore, let the immigrants in.