11_4_time

People haven't forgotten their origins at all; in fact most people are probably too overly proud of them.

But times also change. What may have made sense in 1903 may be detrimental to the descendants of those immigrants today. I believe we should have a sharp but temporary reduction in most immigration today to see if it benefits the lowest wage earners in the U.S. It's an easy policy to reverse if it doesn't.

That's from a poem tacked onto the Statue of Liberty in 1903, not U.S. law or policy. People quote that as if it's from the preamble to the constitution or something...

Mass immigration made sense when the U.S. was a manufacturing colossus, no longer. Immigration should be targeted and far lower than it is now.

Europe will soon have a chance to test out your theory:

https://assets.weforum.org/editor/wHXSXEN_EkCmuj8Jnb9I6EVD9g...

Yes I do. Up until recently they had about 50,000 illegal year.

The raw numbers aren't the issue. Switzerland hasn't had decades of sustained mass-immigration of low-skilled workers. The flow of immigrants to Switzerland is nothing like that into the United State.

I'll go out on a limb and suggest that the U.S. immigration policy (or lack thereof) bears a signification part of the blame here.

Why in the face of globalization (and now increased automation) the U.S. continues to have an effectively open-door policy to low-skill workers makes no sense at all.

As a U.S. citizen, I'd like to see a return to the temporary moratorium that existed until the mid 1960s (say 10 to 15 years) on most immigration beyond high-skill (however that is defined) and an end to "chain migration" in which entire families are allowed to immigrate regardless of most other factors.

They haven't had decades of sustained mass immigration of low-skilled workers.