This is an opinion piece I read on the Powerline Blog and it relates to US immigration. However it is such a rational and logical piece, the arguments that it encompasses could be applied to any country, and NZ in particular. I’ve summarised the main points below, if you want to read the complete article please go here.
The level of immigration in total numerical terms is currently at an all-time high.Immigration levels have quadrupled from less than 10 million in 1970 to more than 40 million today. As a share of the population, the percentage of foreign-born will exceed all historical records beginning in eight years’ time and will keep exceeding all historical records every subsequent decade. By contrast, after the last peak year in 1910, the foreign-born share fell for the ensuing six decades.
In 1970, less than 1 in 21 residents were foreign-born; today it is almost 1 in 7. The annual rate of immigration is almost double its level from the Reagan years and more than triple its level from the post-WWII boom years.
The Census Bureau projects that the total size of the immigration increase between now and 2025 will be 14 million – or a new population 54 times the size of Orlando, Florida. 10 million of those will have green cards which confer access to federal benefits, lifetime work permits, and the ability to obtain citizenship.
A pro-wage, pro-worker, pro-middle class immigration policy is based on the needs of everyday workers – not lobbyists – and will expand social stability and economic security. Moreover, this is what the American people desperately want. The extreme position is to continue expanding record-breaking immigration levels to never-before-seen heights, and is an outcome welcomed by only 7% of the country.
So for all of the histrionics of D.C./Wall Street elites, they are increasingly out of touch with public opinion and the concerns of working families hoping to send their kids to good schools, to have them graduate with good job prospects, and to see them earn a good living.
The poll data are overwhelming; politicians will disregard public opinion on this issue at their peril:
* Gallup (1/29/15): By a more than 5-to-1 margin (39% vs. 7%), Americans who are dissatisfied with current immigration levels want less rather than more
* Pew (2012): 69% say we should “restrict and control people coming to live in our country more than we do now” (including 59% of Hispanics)
* Reuters (8/7/14): By a nearly 3-to-1 margin (45% vs. 17%), Americans think immigration rates should be reduced, not increased
* Gallup (6/8/14): By a 2-to-1 margin (41% vs. 22%), Americans think immigration should be decreased rather than increased
* The Polling Company (8/14/14): By a staggering 10-to-1 margin (75% vs. 8%), Americans believe that a business seeking workers should raise wages and improve working conditions before hiring new labor from abroad
TrueblueNZ 
Could you imagine the financial mess the Country would be in if we had not had immigration.How would we fund our multitude of social programs.
Immigrants bring skills in that we do not have.
Immigrants do jobs our local ferals do not want to do.
Just look at the offshore fishing situation, stone age Maori did not go deep sea offshore fishing, ever, but we gave then the market and the first thing they did was bring in slave ships from offshore to do the work. When asked about local unemployment the answer was our boys do not want to go fishing.
The challenge is to bring only the best and brightest.
The problem is we have a low wage economy and are uncompetitive in the World market. It is getting harder and harder to attract the right people and as a result we are accepting a lesser standard.
How sustainable is an economy were the locals do not want to work and expect everything to be provided to them and all the work is done by Immigrants.
Would you emigrate to a country were you immediately become e a 2nd class citizen.
We need to address the real problem first.
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