On the subject of immigration, it is so apparent that we need:
- An extended period of High-Assimilation and Low-Immigration policies.
- To discourage ethnic enclave formation and encourage assimilation in existing enclaves.
- An end to chain migration and all incentives that are contrary to national interest.
We are overdue for an extended period of high-assimilation and low-immigration policies. Low-immigration periods predominate American history, with few periods of high immigration. The current period of high immigration, particularly illegal immigration, likely stems from the muddling of influences from the cheap labor goals of domestic and foreign commercial organizations operating within the U.S. and the political benefits of the immigrants on government welfare. These interests have suppressed political will to solve this national security problem.
Allowing foreign ethnic waves of immigrants to concentrate in enclaves provides sparse opportunities to assimilate to American values. It is basic human impulse for people to conform to the social norms around them, but in an isolated enclave everyone is working with the old country norms.
In the absence of education and experiences enabling their appreciation of American values, enclaves can be environments where immigrants may be encouraged to profess loyalty to the old system. A vacuum is created that gets filled with romantic visions of the broken political, judicial and social habits that they left behind in their old country.
At a minimum, this vacuum can be filled by disgruntled actors simply creating animosity and reinforcing the correctness of the old system. More threatening, these enclaves can become safe harbor for extremists that mean to do harm to American citizens. Ilhan Omar, may be an example of compromised loyalties.
A particularly unpredictable component to these ethnic groups are those coming by “Chain Migration.” Family members that come due to loyalty to their family members who brought them, but no dutiful loyalty to this country. Not attributing to them any ill intent, but this category often has no compulsion to be loyal to the U.S. My short time as a spouse of a Foreign Service Officer left me in shock in how many foreign-born spouses of FSO’s were in the process of bringing their parents to the US. Hoping this is an extremely rare example (but doubtful), one such Mexican-born spouse wore a Castro olive drab jacket to a night out event. He also was an Excepted Family Member employee at one point.
Another insidious influence is Sharia law. This theocratic set of laws has been implemented in some enclaves, justified as a form of local civil court. However, there is no reason not to expect this influence to grow in jurisdiction and influence. A Muslim community that remains an enclave that grows in population and jurisdictional reach, but without thorough assimilation to American values, can be expected to implement Sharia law in their increasing jurisdictions. This would create the same threat that troubles France and Scandinavia at this time. We can avoid this problem through assimilation programs.
Furthermore, since Somalia, we have seen a detrimental cycle of engaging in conflict in broken societies, creating significant destruction, then allowing millions of these people to immigrate into America. The vetting of these migrants has minimal accuracy due to a lack of record keeping from their countries of origin.
Many millions of people around the world covet the idea of life in America. The true gift of their journey is the expectations this country places on them to assimilate and respect American values and the rule of law. Those who have been fortunate enough to immigrate have traditionally embraced those expectations and had tremendous pride in joining the country as a fully assimilated citizen. Most legal immigrants have put in the work to study the country, are quite knowledgeable on US history, and are proud to defend its greatness.
A key part of restoring America is creating a culture of appreciation of our American history, and the world history that paved the way for achieving human liberty. We have an opportunity to reinforce that culture through an immigration policy that expects and lays a path for thorough assimilation of immigrants. This is not just important to the reinforcement of American values as they support domestic life. It is important to America’s friends and allies, who take example from America’s leadership.