>>>>>>>>>>But Australia is much smaller in population than USA.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>it's per-capita, meaning the total $ amounts would be colossal in the US.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> And (if my geography is correct) does not have a border with Mexico
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>LOL... but you could make all illegal immigrants citizens overnight and you'd be even better off: immigrant populations are younger, which increases the magic of compound returns from their contributions.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>If you make them citizens they will immediately invite all of their relatives <g>. And we will be like China <g>. Just today I heard on tv a commercial by some "immigration group" (sorry didn't catch their name) that call for reducing
legal immigration to the USA on the basis that we don't have enough jobs for Americans. It used to be that many were against illegal immigrants; now the legals are in the same boat.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>FWIW, there's a long history of anti-immigrant sentiment in this country. Recent years are the exception, not the rule.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Check out an old song called "No Irish need apply." Each group of new immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries ran into a lot of discrimination and unpleasantness. And, fwiw, it was at least partly that anti-immigrant sentiment (along with antisemitism in the State department) that accounts for why Jews fleeing Nazi Germany weren't able to come to the US in large numbers.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Tamar
>>>>>
>>>>>Or Jews fleeing the Soviet anti-semitism; yours truly is one of those.
>>>>
>>>>My impression is that the US was far more open to those immigrants than to the earlier ones. Was your experience different?
>>>>
>>>>Tamar
>>>
>>>I can only speak for myself and I can't praise USA enough for opening the doors for me. Many people helped me along the way. And I have never had any problems in this country, as far as people snubbing me or looking down at me because I am not native born. Until I joined UT (just kidding).
>>
>>Which is exactly what I thought (and thought I said originally). If you look back at the first half of the 20th century (and the 20-30 years before that), you'll see that new immigrant groups were not particularly welcomed.
>>
>>Tamar
>
>I think back then (the first half of the 20th century) the resentment and the hard time one group was giving to another was more because of the ethnic and racial bias (anti-irish, anti-italian, anti-semitic, anti-black etc.) and not so because they were immigrants. IMHO.
Certainly ethnic and racial bias was part of the picture, but anti-immigrant sentiment was involved as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativism_%28politics%29Tamar
