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Cotton’s Article on Immigration 

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Clarissa

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The following excerpt is from Tom Cotton’s article on the immigration policy he’d like to see in place in the US:

This policy would resemble the immigration systems of Canada and Australia, countries with similar advanced economies. While our system gives priority to reuniting extended families and low-skilled labor, their systems prize nuclear-family reunification and attributes like language skills, education and work experience. A similar system here would allow in immigrants like doctors to work in rural areas while not pushing down working-class wages.

Just to get this out of the way: immigrant doctors can’t practice medicine in Canada without getting educated pretty much from scratch. And it’s only right because you don’t want to be attended by somebody who bought a diploma on the black market in Ukraine or wherever. 

But the question I have is whether it’s true that the US favors reunification of extended families and why. This seems bizarre. Is he inventing this? Another question is why would anybody who is not planning to exploit cheap labor oppose moving towards the system resembling Canada’s professional immigration when it so clearly works. 

P.S. What I’m not interested in hearing is how Cotton is a bad person. I only want to discuss the issue I mention in the post. 

14 responses to “Cotton’s Article on Immigration ”

  1. danmillerinpanama Avatar
    danmillerinpanama

    How about an immigration system like that of Mexico or of most other nations in Latin America?

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Mexico suffers from enormous numbers of illegal Central American migrants. Why would anybody want to imitate such an unsuccessful system??

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      1. danmillerinpanama Avatar
        danmillerinpanama

        Ah, yes. But the immigration laws of Mexico, et al, are extremely restrictive. Perhaps ours should be as well, but enforced — in ways comparable to those of Mexico against U.S. citizens.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          My husband who has a PhD from Purdue and is a very high earner was going to be deported 2 weeks after losing his job in case he didn’t find a new one. I find that very restrictive. American people are totally in their right to do this, of course, but it sounds restrictive to me. Of course, instead of being a law-abiding person, my husband could have done what many other people do: stayed on illegally and worked illegally without paying taxes. He didn’t do that. But many people do and these restrictive laws can do nothing to stop them. It seems strange to me that the American people would choose to reward dishonest folks and punish law-abiding people like us but, as I said, they are in their right.

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  2. Dreidel Avatar
    Dreidel

    “why would anybody who is not planning to exploit cheap labor oppose moving towards the system resembling Canada’s professional immigration when it so clearly works.”

    I’m not familiar with Cotton’s plan, but you quote his article as saying “This policy would RESEMBLE the immigration systems of Canada and Australia…” That sounds to me like he’s looking at Canada’s program favorably.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Yes, exactly. But many people are against this program and I wonder why.

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  3. J. Otto Pohl Avatar
    J. Otto Pohl

    Yes it is true that since 1965 that the US system has given some priority of family reunification over skills.

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    1. The Dark Avenger Avatar
      The Dark Avenger

      A question she could’ve used Google to either verify or dismiss.

      This is your mind on academics. Any questions?

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        If I had used Google, there would be no post, no comments, no people clicking on the post to leave comments, no interesting discussion, no input from anybody. Just me, all alone with Google. That would be a bizarre blogging strategy, don’t you think?

        I love it how people who have no readers keep trying to teach me how to blog.

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        1. The Dark Avenger Avatar
          The Dark Avenger

          Nope, you could’ve done the minute or so of Googling to see if what Sen. Cotton was true instead of telling us how unlikely and bizarre it seemed to you, and based your blog post on that.

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          1. Clarissa Avatar
            Clarissa

            If my goal were to use Google instead of starting a discussion, that’s what I would have done. But that was not my goal. Can you accept a possibility that different people might have different goals and pursue them in different ways? My goal is not to fact-check Cotton but to have interesting discussions on my blog. I’m very successful at this task. I’m so successful that you are right here right now, giving me blog hits and raising my blog profile guess where? In the very Google that you so like.

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  4. valter07 Avatar
    valter07

    My impression is that US middle class is afraid of the competition.
    As for Canada, Canada preferring educated migrants does not mean that Canada is actually using their education in meaningful ways. Perhaps in indirect ways – children of educated families are more likely to integrate successfully…

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  5. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti

    While our system gives priority to reuniting extended families and low-skilled labor, their systems prize nuclear-family reunification and attributes like language skills, education and work experience. A similar system here would allow in immigrants like doctors to work in rural areas while not pushing down working-class wages.

    Ok, that excerpt is factually wrong.

    The current US system does make it easier to immigrate if you already have immediate family here but it does not make it easier for low skilled labor to immigrate than high skilled labor and it’s not like extended family is included in this ambit. I have several relatives who immigrated after my parents got green cards and citizenships and not once did they apply to my parents for help to speed their immigration process. They are “highly skilled” labor. Most people take the easiest path to get in that’s available to them. If “my sibling lives here” or “my aunt lives here” was easier than having an appointment to teach at a university or being a doctor or getting a high skilled worker visa they’d do that.

    Cotton is from Arkansas, which doesn’t get much in the way of high skilled labor not because of some faults in the US immigration system but because of the way people in Arkansas choose to run their state and interact with anyone who is the tiniest bit different than they are. High skilled immigrants have choices. There’s a reason they go to Texas or California or Florida or North Carolina and stay out of Arkansas or Mississippi. It’s not just a dearth of high skilled jobs in those states. They can have all the pilot programs sending immigrant doctors and high skilled whatever to where ever but if the locality sucks they won’t stay. And that’s something all these insular people who demur at crossing literal bridges (safe, sound, and in the same county) have no comprehension of.

    If you’re going to propose a new different model you should base your differences on what the current system is and not some straw model you’ve cooked up in your head.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      This is precisely why I prefer to hear from intelligent, informed people instead of Googling. Google wouldn’t give me such a great answer and enrich me intellectually like this comment did. Thank you, Shakti.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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