Immigration reduction

   

The immigration reduction movement is a movement active within the United States and elsewhere, which advocates for a reduction in the amount of immigration allowed into the United States or other countries. This can include a reduction in the numbers of legal immigrants, advocating for stronger action to be taken to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country, and reductions in non-immigrant temporary work visas (such as H-1B and L-1 in the United States). What separates it from those in the mainstream that desire immigration reform is that reductionists see immigration as being the source of most social, economic, and environmental problems.

Critics of this movement will often call it anti-immigrant or anti-immigration. However immigration reductionists insist that those terms are incorrect, since they claim that they support full legal protection and civil rights for recent legal immigrants, and continued legal immigration, only at drastically lower numbers. For this reason, they prefer the terms "immigration reduction" or "immigration restriction".

Among the claims that immigration reductionists use to support lower immigration numbers:

  • A majority of U.S. population growth is now due to immigration. Advocates of zero population growth and others concerned with overpopulation and other environmental issues are often attracted to immigration reductionism because of this.
  • High levels of immigration may be seen as providing a steady source of cheap or low-wage labor to corporations. This can be seen as detrimental to wage levels in the U.S., and as a threat to the ability of labor unions to organize workplaces, with the threat always present that if workers organize they can easily be replaced by cheaper legal or illegal labor.
  • Sometimes, the reason is cultural. Some believe the high levels of legal immigration into the U.S., whether legal or illegal, are at rates too high to allow recent immigrants to assimilate into U.S. society, and especially discourages recent immigrants from learning the English language. The "Diversity Alliance" claims that excessive numbers of unassimilated immigrants may lead to a Bosnia-like civil war.
  • Illegal immigration is often seen as symptomatic of widespread lawbreaking by employers, who hire workers illegally in the country in order to escape wage, workplace safety, and labor laws. This is especially a problem in the agriculture sector, where it is estimated that over 80% of workers are in the country illegally. However immigration reductionists do not explain how that work force will be replaced.
  • Temporary work visas are often used to replace high-wage workers in industries such as computer programming and engineering with lower-wage workers imported from other countries. This is seen by many as closely related to the practices of outsourcing and offshoring of jobs.

Immigration reductionists differ on the ideal level of immigration they would like to see into the United States. Some believe the numbers should be set each year at whatever level would, in conjunction with the current fertility rate, maintain zero population growth in the country. The most prominent immigration reductionist in government today is U.S. Congressman Tom Tancredo R-CO. Tancredo is pushing a bill that calls for a near-total moratorium on immigration, until such time as all illegal immigration ends, after which it would be set at a level of 300,000 persons per year. The organization, Carrying Capacity Network, goes further and argues for an annual cap of 100,000. Others may support higher numbers, with many immigration reductionists supporting a reduction to the legal immigration levels prior to 1989, estimated at 500,000 to 600,000. (Since 1989, the annual numbers have jumped to well over 1 million, not including illegal migration or temporary work visas). Many support a complete cutoff of legal and illegal immigration, though more reasonable proponents like Tancredo would eventually allow for immigration at about 15% of current levels.

Criticism of immigration reductionism

Immigration reductionism is criticized by many for what they see as ties to the white separatist movement. Others criticize it for taking a narrow approach to the global overpopulation problem. Business interests believe that immigration reductionists do not understand their labor needs, while immigrant rights activists fear that immigration reductionists are really anti-immigrant.

External links

Selected organizations promoting immigration reductionism:


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