Immigration Works Fine When Newcomers Integrate
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March 10, 2017 7:00 AM EST
By
Noah Smith
The U.S. would be nothing if not for immigrants. It was mass immigration that gave the U.S. the power to win the World Wars and the Cold War, and to attain the market size that made it the dominant manufacturing power of the late-19th and 20th centuries. The genius of the Founders was to recognize that immigration wasn't inherently dangerous. They threw out the more restrictive notions of nationalism based on race and religion that prevailed in Europe, and made a big bet on the ability of diverse peoples to come together as one. George Washington, addressing the fears of those who worried that immigrant groups would fail to forge a single cohesive nation, summed up his bold thesis in 1794:
By an intermixture with our people, [immigrants], or their descendants, get assimilated to our customs, measures and laws: in a word, soon become one people.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-03-10/immigration-works-fine-when-newcomers-integrate
