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Americans remain divided on whether to increase immigration levels, according to a Gallup poll released Friday.
Thirty-three percent of respondents said that immigration levels should be increased, while 31 percent said immigration should be decreased. Another 35 percent said immigration should be kept at its present levels.
Take the Jews during WWII. They were escaping persecution and imprisonment, and tried to come here to safety and security. However, the US turned away a significant proportion of them for this reason or that. Whether or not some of those reasons had some merit to them, turning them away without any guidance or support simply was not acceptable. We need to be better than that, because if we can’t take care of our current migrant residence, how can we pass judgement on whether or not we should accept new ones?
In terms of the immigrants themselves, part of that increase in our standards need to be figuring out why they are leaving their own countries in the first place. Fear of violence, pressure from poverty and persecution, and other factors can be involved. If we determine these factors, and intervene to some degree to help resolve some of them, the likely result will be less people leaving to come here. They do have the right to try to come here of course, but hopefully they won’t feel like they NEED to to take care of themselves.
Truthfully, the US can’t accept literally every individual and family into its borders, even if it wanted to, since it doesn’t have the resources or capacity. These truths are part of what make up many Americans’ misgivings about accepting more immigrants. If we are going to increase our quotas at some point, than we need to proportionally increase our standards for giving them the chance for upward mobility, not just for the economy but more importantly for them.
Immigration quotas have existed in the US since 1921, exactly 100 years. We know it sets limits on the number of people allowed to migrate here, but there are also a host of other legal qualifications which are factored in when deciding who can stay, including whether one is seeking asylum, as well as their health status, job skills, education, and the presence or absence of a criminal record.
The country needs to do what it can to accommodate as many people as possible, and be as judicious about deciding the people that it decides to turn away.
One could say that America shouldn’t accept more people into the country when it fails to adequatly support, and provide opportunity for some many of its current residents. Another could point to the country’s well-known promise to welcome, and care for all people, and that immigration is even more reason for the nation to improve itself.