ANHOW Review of Books: "Alien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster" -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, [5], 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 03:44:52 09/01/03 Mon
Author: Mt. Healthy Mountaineer
Subject:

ANHOW Review of Books: "Alien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster"

Author: Peter Brimelow
Genre: Non-fiction
Published: 1995 by Random House

Peter Brimelow has written a thought-provoking work that exposes the quirks and idiosyncracies of America's immigration policies by providing lots and lots of details, facts and charts while, for the most part, keeping the text lively and interesting. Not a mean feat.

Brimelow is a writer for Forbes Magazine and, apparently, he enjoys digging into controversial topics. I've previously reviewed another of his books concerning Teacher's Unions (here's a link. ) He goes after the potentially explosive topic of immigration in two ways. First, he looks at the ways the current laws were supposed to have worked by delving in to the original debates of 1965. Secondly, he goes after America's cherished beliefs about immigration and asks rather simple questions that usually dismantle those beliefs as easily as a breeze destroys a house of cards. He tiptoes on the edge of sounding racist (he often questions whether it is in the best interest of the USA to dramatically alter its ethnic and cultural base without so much as having had one serious debate on the matter in the Congress).

He begins with looking at the promises of Ted Kennedy in speeches made in Senate Committee in 1965 concerning the then-proposed (now current system). Kennedy promised that immigration would not increase if his proposed changes were enacted (it has quadrupled) and that the ethnic mix of the country would not change (it has - hispanics up from 3% to 13%. Asians up from 1% to 3%. Whites as a percentage of population have dropped from 85% to 70%.) Brimelow's msot compelling argument, in my mind, is that, at the very least, the USA needs to have an open, frank discussion concerning immigration and at decide if the system we have accidentally created is the one we really want.

The big problem with the current system, according to Brimelow, is that it focuses on family re-unification rather than filling needs that our country has. Family re-unification quickly gets out of control and let me demonstrate how with a mock example. Let's pretend that all of the members of my family actually live in Canada. Adilbrand's wife (forum name BAD) moves to America to get a job and is successful. She is a resident alien and asks for permission to bring her husband (Adilbrand) and two sons over. Permission granted since this is the focus of our immigration policy. So - our one immigrant is now 4. Adilbrand brings his mom and dad over. Total now = 6. Adlibrand's Mom and Dad bring over Alphonse (Adilbrand's brother) and his wife and 2 kids. Total now = 10. Adilbrand's parents decide that they also must bring over my parents (brother and sister-in-law, respectively) who decide that they must sponsor me and my wife and daughter. Immigration total now = 15. My wife decides she must have my mother-in-law live in America as well, who brings along my sister-in-law. Total = 17, including a number of people that the original immigrant, BAD, does not even know. Do we all have skills that would be helpful to America? It does not matter - the prioity is family re-unification.

Rather than going on with other long examples, I'd rather just recommend the book - you may not agree with it but it will make you think. I give it an "A".

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]