Is Merit Based Immigration Un-American?

The recently pulled immigration bill was pulled from the Senate because as a compromise effort it was compromised by trying to please two forces who can't be pleased. One of the underlying criticisms of the bill, from the left was that it emphasized "merit" over family ties. The likelihood is that any future bill will include merit as a qualifier, but is it true to the American dream?

Gregory Rodriguez, in today's LA Times, has taken on this question and reminds us that if merit were considered important few of our ancestors would have been allowed in.

Don't kid yourself. If there had been an immigration point system in the 19th and early 20th centuries, many of your ancestors would have been denied entry to the United States. Sure, maybe the Irish would have had a natural advantage by speaking English, but they wouldn't have scored many points with either their skills or educational attainment.

The truth is that during the period of unrestricted immigration — before the U.S. erected systemized barriers to entry in the 1920s — fewer than 2% of newcomers were highly skilled. Throughout most of our history, the average immigrant came from the lower, if not the very bottom, ranks of their home societies. They were men and women with few advantages, willing to sacrifice and work hard to better their lot. Heck, that's why they came here in the first
place.

So in our new view of immigration we'll have guest workers -- who come and go as needed but will have no chance at partaking of the dream -- and they'll not bring their families. But if you have the requisite technical skills you can come.

Rodriguez calls this a "sanitized, suburban" narrative.

Addled by our comfort, we are stripping our national narrative of its grit and determination. The new story is sanitized and suburbanized. It envisions America as a nation of status maintenance rather than of striving; as a land not of opportunity and risk but of middle-class caution, where we value credentials over ambition and raw energy. From this perspective, immigrants shouldn't struggle upward but walk straight into an office cubicle.

Likely we'll end up with a bill that is merit based and we'll turn our back on the uplifting stories of struggle for a new life. A need to come up with a way to bring the 12 million out of the shadows will require such a compromise, but it's not a very welcome one.