The
former leader of an immigration advocacy group suggested this week that mass
migration might not be such a glorious blessing to the U.S. after all.
Instead of jumping on Joe Biden’s open-borders bandwagon, Demetrios Papademetriou, president emeritus of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), cautioned America to “be careful about how much immigration we need.”
“There are people who have not participated in the largess of immigration,” Papademetriou observed during a forum titled, “The Role of Migration in Emerging from the Economic and Labor Market Turmoil.”
Pointing
to electoral maps that showed President Donald Trump carried 2,497 suburban and
rural counties, versus 477 densely populated counties won by Biden, he said
proponents of mass immigration “cannot wish away” red state voters or their
concerns.
Looking
beyond the short-term effects of the COVID pandemic, Papademetriou forecast
that “by the end of 2021 we’re still going to be in trouble. There is going to
be structural unemployment [in the U.S.]for a long time.”
Papademetriou
has not transmogrified himself into Deporter-in-Chief. He speaks hopefully
about “immigrant integration” and a “grand bargain” to convert temporary work
permits into permanent residency (though not citizenship). But Papademetriou’s
heightened attention to the plight of American workers indicates his belief
that there ought to be some limits to immigration enthusiasm.
FAIR research has long proven that “too many people, driven by too much immigration … looking for too few jobs … has resulted in periods of high unemployment and a long-term, downward spiral of wages.”
“Through
the process of admitting millions of low-skilled legal immigrants each year, we
are mathematically reducing our middle class and swelling the ranks of those
living at or below the poverty level. The middle class is disappearing,
resulting in more income inequality and more societal friction.”
Papademetriou
picked up on that inequality and friction. “Much more attention needs to be
paid to people who have not benefited from immigration and globalization,” he
offered. “If you cannot address the real concerns of people, that’s not the way
to move forward.”
As MPI’s president emeritus, he may not have the clout he once did. Indeed, on the day Papademetriou spoke, his organization released yet another sweeping critique of Trump’s policies.
But while
Papademetriou’s voice sounds like one crying in the wilderness, it’s a voice of
reason that is essential to any honest immigration debate.
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