The global migration wave of the 21st century has little precedent. In North America, Europe and Oceania, the foreign-born population share is at or near record highs.
In the US, that share is approaching the previous peak of 15 percent reached in 1890. In some other countries, the increase in immigration has been even steeper in the past two decades:
Immigration of this scale is not popular with the inhabitants of the countries of arrival. Illegal immigration is particularly unpopular because it gives the impression that the country’s laws don’t matter. But large-scale legal immigration worries many voters. Low-income and blue-collar workers often worry that their wages will fall because employers suddenly hire a larger, cheaper labor pool.
As Wall Street Journal reporter Tom Fairless wrote a few days ago:
Record immigration to rich countries is sparking major backlash around the world, fueling populist parties and pressuring governments to tighten policies to stem the tide of migration. …
Experts say the setbacks repeat a long cycle in immigration policy. Businesses constantly lobby for more liberal immigration laws because it lowers their labor costs and increases profits. He draws support from pro-business politicians on the right and pro-integrationist leaders on the left, leading to more liberal immigration policies than the average voter wants.
Bernie vs. the left
The political left in both Europe and the US has struggled to respond to these developments. Instead, many progressives have dismissed immigration concerns as mere reflections of bigotry that needs to be defeated. and opposition to immigration There is Often fraught with racism: right-wing leaders in France such as Marine Le Pen traffic in hateful stereotypes about immigrants. Some lie like Donald Trump.
But supporting low-level immigration is not inherently bigoted or always right-wing. The most prosperous large countries in Africa, Asia and South America have much lower foreign-born shares of their populations. Japan and South Korea make it particularly difficult for foreigners to enter.
In earlier eras, the political left in the US included many individuals concerned about the effects of large-scale immigration. Labor leaders and civil rights leaders, for example, argued for moderate levels of immigration to protect the interests of vulnerable workers.
“There’s a reason Wall Street and all of corporate America likes immigration reform, and in my view it’s not that they stay up all night worrying about undocumented workers in this country,” Bernie Sanders said in 2015. “I think they’re interested in looking at a process where we can bring all levels of low-wage workers into this country to drive down wages for Americans, and I strongly disagree with that.
Today, however, many progressives are uncomfortable with any immigration-skeptic argument. He is a passionate advocate of greater immigration and global integration, arguing that immigrants often benefit from moving from a low-wage country to a high-wage country – rightly so. But immigration is no more a free lunch than free trade. As some local leaders, such as New York Mayor Eric Adams and officials in South Texas, have emphasized recently, this has costs, including burdens on social services.
Rutte’s decision
Because today’s left-leaning and centrist parties often accept high levels of immigration, right-wing parties are attractive to many voters who favor low immigration. As Jason Horowitz of The Times describes in a recent article, this issue has fueled the rise of right-wing nationalist parties in France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland and elsewhere. Jason focuses on Spain, another country where an anti-immigration party is growing.
A recent case study is the Netherlands. The ruling coalition there collapsed on Friday after centrist parties refused to accept part of the conservative prime minister’s plan to reduce immigration. Rather than change his plan, Prime Minister Mark Rutte dissolved the government, setting up an election this fall.
Rutte, notably, is not a member of the far right. He is a mainstream Dutch conservative who has sought to marginalize the country’s militant anti-immigration party. Yet he believed that reducing immigration was “a matter of political survival” for his party, my colleagues Matina Stewis-Gridneff and Claire Moses report.
Although the details vary, President Biden has recently taken steps to reduce unauthorized immigration. So far, his new policy — which includes both increased border enforcement and an expansion of legal channels for applying for entry — has reduced the surge in immigration along the US-Mexico border. Still, the issue clearly divides Biden’s party. Many liberal Democrats criticized his policy as heartless and said the U.S. should accept more immigrants, not fewer.
Democrats often like to point to the many ways Republicans are out of step with public opinion, including abortion bans, the minimum wage, taxes on the rich, and background checks for gun owners. Immigration cuts the other way, surveys show. It is a matter of the political left in Europe being in a different place than the majority of the Democratic Party electorate.
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