Gallup: Most Say Immigration is Good for America

[maestrob]

Nearly 8 in ten (77%) Americans think immigration is a good thing for their country. When measured in this more general sense, public support for immigration shows far less of a partisan divide, and both parties express a more generally positive view of immigration.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/313106/ame ... -time.aspx

[Modernistfan]

One real problem with restricting immigration is that we are not training nearly enough highly skilled people who can handle top-level jobs in areas such as high-tech and biotech. I just saw on CNBC that the real-estate sector is scrambling to find enough lab space for biotech ventures, and that sector is just booming. The only problem is that the top-level jobs in that area almost always require either a Ph.D. or an M.D., and, increasingly, the students in those degree programs are immigrants (native-born American kids find these programs just too difficult and requiring too much effort).

[barney]

Yes, there is already global competition to lure the brightest and best, whether biotechnology, computer programming, plumbers or the very wealthy who will invest. Australia has different policies for skilled migrants.
Much of our record run of nearly 3 decades before going into Covid recession owes a lot to migration.

[maestrob]

Yes, there is already global competition to lure the brightest and best, whether biotechnology, computer programming, plumbers or the very wealthy who will invest. Australia has different policies for skilled migrants.
Much of our record run of nearly 3 decades before going into Covid recession owes a lot to migration.

A lot of this has to do with the exorbitant cost of higher education in the USA. Many very bright American kids are opting not to go to college, while others are being forced out because their middle-class family incomes don't qualify them for scholarships. A medical degree, for example, can cost well north of $200,000 these days. I have other friends whose 2 kids are looking at $25,000/year in student loans for rather mediocre schools because they can't afford the better ones.

We simply cannot compete with countries like China and India who offer excellent technical training at a fraction of the cost, so their graduates can work for less than ours. All this while our famous universities like Harvard, Yale & Columbia, sit on endowments worth billions!

I recently heard of a well-known billionaire who paid the tuition for an entire graduating class of medical students here at NYU Medical School, but, frankly, that's just not enough.

[jserraglio]

Long since debunked is the notion that low-wage immigrants drive American citizens out of good-paying jobs. That happens with high-end or high-tech jobs, but only if there aren’t enough Americans to compete for those jobs.

Immigrants actually infuse wealth and jobs into the economy. They create demand for goods and services which native-born citizens are paid to supply.