Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

What’s Wrong with Illegal Immigration?

I present a number of arguments, some 'liberal,' atop the Stack.

I am well aware of the infirmity of reason, and of the stupidity and suggestibility of people, especially in this Age of Feeling and Xed-out attention spans.  And so I am well aware of just how little is accomplished by calm and careful argumentation in these dark times. But we need to have arguments at the ready for those fence-sitters, many of them decent young people, who are open to reason and have not yet been hopelessly corrupted by our decadent culture.

Reason is for the reasonable, just as civility is for the civil.

But it is not reasonable to be reasonable in all things or in relation to all persons. We live among enemies. The enemy needs sometimes to experience the hard fist of unreason, the brute rejection, the blind refusal, the lethal blow. Or at least he must be made to fear this response, and you must be capable of making it. 

The good are not the weak, but those capable of  violence while remaining the masters of its exercise.

Otherwise, are you fit for this world?

On the other hand, it might be better not to be fit for this world. What sort of world is it in which the good must be brutal to preserve the reign of the Good?

More grist for the mill. We blog on.

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Bill Vallicella

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2 responses to “What’s Wrong with Illegal Immigration?”

  1. James Soriano Avatar
    James Soriano

    Your list of reasons for opposing illegal immigration could be a Republican campaign paper against the Dems.
    The chaos on the US southern border mostly has to do with economic migrants. I don’t know if this adds to clarity, but here’s a typology on economic migration:
    a. To be in the US and to have an internet/high tech job
    b. To be in the US and not to have an internet/high tech job
    c. Not to be in the US and to have an internet/high tech job
    d. Not to be in the US and not to have an internet/high tech job
    Much of legal immigration is concerned with Option A. This is not a political issue. However, if you were a talented foreign graduate in one of the STEM fields between the years of the rise of Silicon Valley and the Covid pandemic, Option A would be in front of you on graduation. That would be your dream. The lure of American Big Tech would be very attractive, considering that in the past there were relatively fewer, and lower-paying, internet and high tech jobs outside the US. That’s not the case today.
    I don’t know the data on high-skilled worker immigration patterns, but intuitively Option A is now getting competition from Option C. There are more opportunities abroad for foreign STEM graduates. Such jobs come from foreign start-ups as well as from the hiring practices of some American tech giants. These latter hire workers who live many time zones away, which is desirable for companies that benefit from 24-hour operations. Work-from-home and zooming are now part of business plans. They were not on the scene when Silicon Valley was in its early growth stage. Moreover, if the foreign graduate comes from a conservative cultural background, why immigrate to the US, with its crime, decaying cities, and all that rainbow stuff, when you can stay in the country of your birth and pursue a similar good-paying job via the internet?
    The issue of illegal immigration is really a story between Options B and D. Most of the border-crossers are young unskilled males. For them Option C is not an option, and B is more preferable than living in an Option D country. The US should control its borders, but the long-term solution would be about boosting economic growth in Option D countries.

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  2. BV Avatar
    BV

    Very good observations, James. It helps us understand the complexity of the ‘migrant’ problem.
    >>Moreover, if the foreign graduate comes from a conservative cultural background, why immigrate to the US, with its crime, decaying cities, and all that rainbow stuff, when you can stay in the country of your birth and pursue a similar good-paying job via the internet?<< I've had a similar thought. As the quality of life in the USA declines, the quality of illegal immigrants is likely also to decline. Why immigrate to a crap hole? Who is moving to New York or California these days? So one 'solution' to the problem of illegal immigration is to make all of America unlivable, not just the 'sanctuary' crap zones. Then no one will want to enter illegally and we might even get mass emigration of illegals and legals. Hell , if things get bad enough here, I may join you in Lebanon. Got a room to rent?

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