Each time I hear US politicians claiming the UK is being 'swamped' by a flood of immigrants, I am wryly amused that they have no idea about (or refuse think about) how the USA was founded.... by a swamping of immigrants who destroyed the native (indigenous) population - immigrants driven by religious persecution & often seeking to better their family's economic circumstances.
Still why would US politicians be concerned with their country's own history?
History is a tool; they wield it clumsily.
Rich assholes here in the US have always relied on immigrant labor when they couldn't find enough cheap indigenous labor. I assume the current anti-immigration tilt comes from rich assholes who have enough labor at hand but want to make the locals afraid.
'Twas ever thus.
That’s the thing: facing an upcoming once-in-generation labor shortage, and the prospect of having to increase wages, after 2 generations of successfully suppressing them, lauding tools that will disempower labor even more, the most capital-efficient solution would be to admit more people from around the world.
The whole point of being a "rich asshole" is to push any costs - especially "once in a generation" costs - onto someone else. Those sound expensive.
Trump can sponsor and marry a foreign worker and still bellow about immigrants talking US jobs. Cognitive dissonance requires cognition. His racist supporters cheer and his rich asshole friends don't pay attention to the buffoonery as long as they don't have to get out their checkbooks.
Emeritus Prof. Christopher May
Grumble 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 🇬🇱
Coach Sankhavaram ®