Immigration

"Heat" map for crime rates.  Image from HERE

Most people view "Immigration" the same way they view pain management drugs:  A wonderful thing as long as is managed with discernment.  We don't want every junky on the street to have access to opiates.  We don't want every person on earth to have unrestricted access to our country.

A common complaint about immigration is the effect it has on crime rates.  Folks, people who lack paid work steal things.  People who do not have to wake up in the morning have time for mischief.  IMNSHO, the problem is that we allow unemployable people in...not the color of their skin.  And the reason they come is in anticipation of amnesty.

Discernment

The key word is "discernment".  Our current method of blowing hot-and-cold invites the scoff-laws.  My proposal is pretty simple:

• Total quotas set to achieve 2% annual population growth over the next 10 years.
• Immigrants start with visas and must earn their way in by demonstrating work ethic. I consider 1600 hours of documented, paid work per year for five years to be sufficient evidence but I will not quibble if others have different bogeys.
• Alternatively, starting/managing a business that pays at least two other people for two years would be enough evidence.

The demographics of Japan and Western Europe are like watching the heat death of the universe.  It does not have to happen.

Being anti-immigration is self-serving.  There are no evolved-in-place humans in the Western Hemisphere.  New-world megafauna had reasons to be anti-immigration, but that boat already sailed (for them).  Unless you are a German Shepherd reading this blog, your ancestors were immigrants.

First and second generation immigrants tend to be the hardest working and most patriotic citizens.  Their views are not clouded by ambiguity or second-hand feelings of guilt.  They get sh!t done.

We must tend our garden.  We can grow weeds or we can cultivate our garden by favoring productive people.  Our hot-and-cold policy shows too much favor for the weeds.