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of a country or economy that declined in the long run due to immigration, either legal or illegal. Greece? Rome? China? Egypt? Great Britain? France? Spain? The US? I would guess that the US has been the destination of more immigrants than any country in history? Many came before there were any immigration laws, many were legal after laws were enacted, and some have been illegal. While there was fierce resistance to immigration from Ireland, Italy and Eastern Europe, our country and economy have not been devastated by their presence.
Would we be better country today if the Continental Congress had prohibited all immigration, including slaves (perhaps with an element of deportation as with current Hispanic immigrants)? If effective, we would be a much be a much whiter (no Asians, few Africans, only the Hispanics who lived in the Southwest when we took it from Mexico), much less heterogeneous, and much smaller in terms of population. Would that be better? I don't think so, but each of us is entitled to an opinion.
"But it is different now." A sentiment that was undoubtedly expressed by those opposed to the immigration of the Irish, and the Italians, and the Eastern Europeans, since they were viewed as a threat to jobs and wages. Immigration opponents in those days, just as many today, knew that you could not criticize immigration in theory, since almost all of us are descended from immigrants, but you could get a lot of public support from those already here to oppose the "next wave" of immigrants, say the Irish.
Then once the Irish immigrants become Irish-Americans, opponents could hope they would join in preventing Italians from immigrating here, the Italian-Americans to stop the Chinese, the Chinese-Americans to stop the Eastern Europeans, and so on and so on until the latest campaign to stop Hispanic immigration.
Maybe when I am 100 and the opponents to some future wave of immigrants gear up I can provide them with the slogans that have proven so effective over our history. "We are not opposed to immigration, just to these immigrants." "We are just protecting American jobs and wages." "It is not that we are xenophobic or racist, it is just that these immigrants are too poor, too lazy (or too hard-working, this one is flexible depending on the stereotype), and besides they speak a funny language."
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