Would You Lift Your Lamp Beside The Golden Door

Most Americans Favor Immigration-- Republicans? Not So Much

Next week marks the birthday of Brooklyn-born poet and activist for immigrant victims of Russian pograms, Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), whose family, fleeing the Inquisition, arrived to New Amsterdam in 1654. She was just 38 years old when she died of lymphoma. 16 years after her death, lines from her sonnet, “The New Colossus,” were placed on a bronze plaque on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, which she had written in 1883.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

People used to say that the only original Americans were the descendents of migrants who walked over the Siberian land bridge between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago. However there is now evidence of pre-Clovis archaeological sites in North and South America that suggest human presence predating the established timeframe for the land bridge migration. Basically, except their descendants, we’re all from immigrant stock. The most important figure in my early life was my grandfather, who came to New York as a young teenager to escape a pogram in what is now Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. I have always been proud of my immigrant roots. I also recall that in high school, the valedictorian, Alyssa, was an immigrant who spoke with a thick accent. I learned quickly to pay close attention when she spoke.

Yesterday, writing for Gallup, Lydia Saad reported that current polling shows that most Americans still value immigration. And understand that overall, it’s good for the country. Republicans, of course, have profound reservations and the data suggests, for example, that though Democrats and Independents appreciate contributions like foreign food and music, Republicans do not. Grok this: 71% of Democrats appreciate the effects immigrants have had on food, music and the arts. Shockingly, just 3% of Republicans feel the same way!

Saad wrote that “Two-thirds of Americans consider immigration a good thing for the country, while 27% consider it a bad thing. The percentage calling it a good thing is down from its peak of 77% in 2020 and is the lowest Gallup has recorded since 2014 (when it was 63%). That decline, of course, coincides with the Trump era. Prior to the Trump era, the Republican Party included many individuals and factions with anti-immigrant positions, but it would be inaccurate to categorize the entire party as uniformly anti-immigrant the way it has become since 2016. Trump's rhetoric and policies, such as calling for a border wall, separating (kidnapping) children from their immigrant families and travel bans, appealed to xenophobes and racists. These tendencies are hardly new to America. As far back as colonial times there was already hostility to non-English immigrants, who were specifically restricted in several colonies, including Maryland (1671) and Pennsylvania (1725). By the mid-1800s nativist movements were in full swing, giving rise to the Know Nothing Party, which was primarily anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic. Many Know Nothings were elected to office, including 52 members of Congress in 1852 and Millard Fillmore 4 years later. He was the most viciously anti-immigrant president until Trump. Most Know Nothing elected officials eventually joined the Republican Party, including Nathaniel Banks, who was elected Speaker of the House. The base was ready for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the American Protective Association of the 1890s and the KKK revival in the 1920s.

Paranoid conservatives argue— mostly without basis— that immigration leads to job displacement or wage depression for American workers, particularly in low-skilled sectors. They contend that immigrants compete for limited resources and strain public services, such as education and healthcare. Usually when they fail with that argument, they quickly transition to concerns about potential threats to national security, arguing that inadequate border control allows criminals, terrorists, rapists and other illicit activities to enter the country. They insist stricter immigration policies are necessary to ensure public safety. Some rail that immigration leads to cultural fragmentation or a lack of assimilation and generally flip out over the sound of foreign languages, social cohesion and the dilution of national identity and values. Conservatives tend to travel overseas less and eat in restaurants that serve “non-American” food less.

In 2018, a team of researchers from UC Berkeley and the University of Maryland and published a paper, “The Politics of International Travel,” showing that individuals who identified as politically liberal or left-leaning tended to travel abroad more frequently compared to those who identified as politically conservative or right-leaning. The conclusions are similar to two studies for the Journal of Travel Research in 2013 and 2015. Researchers investigated the relationship between political ideology and travel motivations among Germans and concluded that the more progressive politically someone is, the greater are the motivations for travel, such as cultural exploration and personal growth, compared to individuals with conservative political orientations. Two years later “Political Orientation and Travel Intentions” looked at Americans and found, again, that individuals with more progressive political orientations expressed higher intentions to engage in international travel compared to those with conservative political orientations.

From my own experience living overseas for around 6 years, including driving from Europe to India, Sri Lanka and Nepal and back on the “Hippie Trail” starting in 1969, I would conclude the same thing. Conservatives fear foreign languages and foreign food and foreigners in general and hate their music, religions and culture, all things that progressives embrace. I concluded back them that it must really suck to be a conservative; in all these years everything I have experienced in constant travel for both business and pleasure, confirms that. 43% of Republicans but just 10% of Democrats, according to Saad, “consider immigration a bad thing.”

She also noted that “73% of Republicans, matching the prior high from 1995, want immigration decreased, while 10% want it increased [while] 40% of Democrats want it increased, while just 18% want it decreased… Today’s differences in immigration views by party are markedly different from the 1990s, when large proportions of both Republicans and Democrats favored a decrease in immigration. Since then, Republicans have maintained their preference for curtailing immigration. By contrast, even with dips in their support this year, Democrats and independents have grown more supportive than they were a decade or more ago.”

A different question provides more detail on how Americans perceive the impact immigrants have on the U.S., asking if they make the situation better or worse in each of seven areas.

More than half of Americans, 54%, think immigrants make the country better rather than worse when it comes to “food, music and the arts.” More also say immigrants make social and moral values better (32%) rather than worse (25%). At the same time, the majority say they make the drug problem worse (55%), and far more— though less than majorities— think immigrants worsen the nation’s crime situation and taxes than say they improve these things.

The public is split on whether immigrants help (39%) or hurt (38%) the country economically. And while the majority say immigrants have no effect on job opportunities for themselves and their families, more see immigrants as a detriment in this area (26%) than an asset (18%)… [S]izable partisan differences exist in views about immigrants, with far more Republicans than Democrats saying they make the country worse in each respect. Independents’ views fall in between, although slightly closer to Democrats’ than Republicans’ in all areas except crime and taxes, where they are right in the middle.

And mirroring the widening gap in partisans’ views about the level of immigration, Democrats’ views of immigrants’ effect on the country in each area have grown increasingly positive, while Republicans’ have soured further.

The change has been particularly stark with respect to the economy. Whereas the three party groups were similarly split from 2001 through 2004 over whether immigrants made the economy better or worse, Democrats have since become solidly positive (62% now say they make the economy better versus 17% worse), while Republicans have gone in the other direction (14% better and 64% worse). After becoming slightly more positive about immigrants' effect on the economy in 2017 and 2018, independents’ views are back to what they were in 2001.

Ever hear Dolly Parton sing a Woody Guthrie song? This is a sad one Woody recorded in 1948, and its power and intensity caused it to also be covered by Bruce Springsteen, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez (this live version is her and Dylan), Odetta, Johnny Cash, the Kingston Trio, Joni Mitchell, Billy Bragg, The Byrds, Hoyt Axton and, literally, dozens of other singers in all genres!