I think most people have both intellectual and deeper, visceral reasons for the policies they promote. When people ask me why I defend immigration...Yes, there are lots of good intellectual reasons, but also, *it's what I grew up with*.https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1056206835810791425 …
-
Show this thread
-
Anti-immigration people constantly struggle to figure out why I support immigration. Is it because I want more votes for the Democratic party? Is it a scheme to make America less white? Is it a neoliberal plot to reduce wages? They just don't understand.
7 replies 13 retweets 68 likesShow this thread -
What they don't understand is that, like most people, I instinctively want to restore the America of my youth. And since I grew up under Reagan, Clinton, and Bush, my America was an America with immigrants. It was part of our communities, our culture, and our national story.
4 replies 20 retweets 80 likesShow this thread -
Immigration was part of the fabric of daily life and community, but it was also a *nationalist* thing. We told ourselves that America, our country, was great because it was a nation of immigrants. That our nation took people from anywhere and uplifted them, gave them a shot.
3 replies 20 retweets 101 likesShow this thread -
Immigrants were great people, of course. They were my friends' parents. They introduced me to interesting things. But on top of that, their presence symbolized the greatness of a nation that I felt I belonged to.
6 replies 10 retweets 61 likesShow this thread -
Without immigration, we were - what? Just like all those other countries, which I imagined (not correctly, but not entirely incorrectly either) as closed-off societies that defined themselves by race, ancestry, and pedigree.
1 reply 11 retweets 47 likesShow this thread -
In fact, I still believe something like this, though now I've seen with my own eyes the power of the xenophobic backlash that has also occasionally defined America throughout its history. I believe we have the power to stop that backlash if we want.
4 replies 5 retweets 35 likesShow this thread -
The America of the 1990s and 2000s is gone now (and yes, parts of it needed to go). But I want the new America that emerges from our current time of troubles to retain the essential elements of the America I believed in when I was young. And immigration is one of those.
4 replies 7 retweets 65 likesShow this thread -
This is not to say that there aren't also very good intellectual, pragmatic justifications for immigration. There are plenty. But for anyone who wondered about why I'm *emotionally* invested in the issue...well, there you go. (end)
6 replies 4 retweets 50 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @Noahpinion
I think lots of people grew up understanding that we valued immigration as a nation. But they perceived that it was accepted without a valid basis and discounted that. And although you have your intellectual reasons, I think a lot of proponents fail to enunciate them.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
Yeah. I spend most of my time laying out the economics-and-sociology-based case for immigration, but I only rarely talk about my own personal feelings on the matter, so I wanted to do that for a change...
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.