Immigrants bring talent that transforms the nation, beyond their votes

In an election year, political analysts seek to measure, and capture, the electoral impact of immigrants  in U.S. elections. Some of my own writing has focused on this theme — for example, this essay about citizenship delays that will curtail voting by naturalized citizens who can flip elections (published in The Conversation and Salon) –and has been influenced by UC Riverside political scientist Karthick Ramakrishnan on immigrant political participation, USC sociologist Manuel Pastor ‘s Rock the (Naturalized) Vote publications, and the National Partnership for New American’s Naturalize Now, Vote Tomorrow campaign.

Peter Beinart in The Atlantic pens a thoughtful essay highlighting the cultural and intellectual impact of immigrants on the nation. He begins by noting the role American universities have historically played attracting international talent to the U.S. Once in the U.S., these same international students bring a cosmopolitan perspective to American life and many stay long enough to shape the institutions and ideas for many years to come. This is the trajectory he sees in the lives of Senator Kamala Harris’ parents, Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris, who met at U.C. Berkeley and joined the fight for civil rights. He sees it in the stories of President Barrack Obama’s parents who met at the University of Hawaii. And he sees it in many more stories of post-1965 migration to the United States from Asia, Africa, and other parts of the world that had been sealed off from the U.S.

The resulting intellectual and cultural enrichment, he says, is something liberals eschew. While conservatives have no hesitation framing immigration as a matter of cultural threat, liberal hesitate to make it a point of cultural pride and instead cast their arguments for the value of immigration in terms of economic or other utilitarian benefits to the nation. For example, immigrants have won X prestigious awards or pay Y taxes or contribute Z to the economy through their patents, corporate contacts, and tuition payments.

This line of argument reduces immigration to an electoral ploy, and Democrats often respond by stressing the utilitarian benefits of welcoming people from all over. But the very existence of Kamala Harris and Barack Obama reveals a political effect that can’t be captured by statistical generalizations. Immigration into the United States allows multicultural interactions that produce Americans who can see the country from both within and without.

The article is worth a full read.

MHC