The way we talk about immigrants has changed. Now the country could too.

An increasing number of Americans are becoming concerned about immigration. As am I. And I am an immigrant. But my concern isn’t tied to the specter of hordes of criminals crossing our borders, as Donald Trump and many of his supporters insist, or to immigrants causing the cost of urban housing to soar, or to low-skilled or unskilled workers driving down wages. I’m worried instead that our changing attitudes about immigration, our rhetoric and our behavior, will ultimately curtail immigration policy to the point where we cause serious damage to our nation. In a fast-developing, fast-urbanizing world in which a fierce global battle for labor and talent is well underway, America is already underperforming. We have one thing going for us, though: robust immigration rates. And we’re about to give it up. Post 9/11, America reframed the debate about immigration to be one of national security and borders, rather than economic imperatives, growth or national prosperity. In terms of sheer numbers, America has more people living in it who weren’t born in the country than any other nation in the world, by a lot. The Pew Research Center estimates that there were 50.6 million people who are not native-born in the United States in 2020. That’s more than the immigrant populations of the next four largest nations combined. But, as a percentage of its population, America now ranks 25th among nations with populations greater than 1 million; roughly 1 in 7 of America’s residents are foreign-born. For the world’s pre-eminent “nation of immigrants,” that number isn’t all that high. As many as 1 in 5 of Canada’s residents are foreign-born, and in Australia foreign-born residents make up almost 30% percent of the population. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.