Discussing the border on a plane

On a flight home from Austin to San Francisco, I set next to lovely and talkative gentleman from Austin who has raised two successful, young adult children, has had a brilliant career in the commodities space, and is celebrating nearly 30 years of marriage to his wife, who is from Central America.

Eventually, amongst talk of careers and kids the border crisis came up and he asked my thoughts about the recent murder committed by a migrant. After expressing my horror and sympathy for the victim’s family I asked him what conclusions he drew from this event and he replied that we needed to secure our border and stop illegal immigration. After expressing my dissapointment that the recent bipartisan border bill failed to pass I said, “In your estimation, across the 200+ year history of this nation, which wave of immigration left us weaker or poorer?”

After discussing Irish and Chinese and Polish and Scandinavian and Mexican waves of immigration, he eventually conceded that all of these immigrants, in the end, have contributed to making the US great. But, he said “This wave is different, even in Panama, the locals talk about the immigrants going to the US as the worst of the worst. They are drawn to the US welfare state, they are lazy and just want to live off the $800 a week Biden is handing out. And the ones who aren’t lazy are the worst sort of criminal. This is the wave that *will* leave the US poorer, weaker, and less safe.”

Not wanting to end our discussion on a sour note, I decided to leave it there. I have had no recent discussions with actual Central Americans and I’m sure he’s right about the conversations he’s had. I am confident, however, that this is not the first time a wave of immigrants has been described as lazy, criminal, and a threat to our very way of life.

In the 1840s and 1850s, Irish immigrants fled to the United States due to the Great Famine. They were often depicted as lazy, violent, and dependent on public assistance by the American press and political cartoons of the era. The term “Paddy Wagons” is believed to have originated from the stereotype that Irish individuals were often drunk and disorderly, leading to their frequent arrest.
ChatGPT 4 quoting the History Channel

To my mind it is clear, that the settlement among us of an inferior race is to be discouraged, by every legitimate means. Asia, with her numberless millions, sends to our shores the dregs of her population. Large numbers of this class are already here… There can be no doubt but that the presence of numbers among us of a degraded and distinct people must exercise a deleterious influence upon the superior race, and, to a certain extent, repel desirable immigration. It will afford me great pleasure to concur with the Legislature in any constitutional action, having for its object the repression of the immigration of the Asiatic races.
Governor Leland Stanford, Inaugural Address 1862

I’m confident, with a little digging, we could find similar sentiments expressed about all the other waves of immigrants. It made me wonder why this keeps happening? Obviously something draws immigrants to our shores, and I’m not confident that it is strictly our welfare state; Canada’s is more generous for example. Somehow, we are still perceived as a place where immigrants can make a better life, if not for themselves, then for their children.

Perhaps this wave of immigrants truly are different, only hindsight will tell. What appears to be the same, howver, is the language used to describe today’s immigrants matches what was used to describe past waves. Perhaps this is because existing elites tend to feel threatened by immigration and find they can preserve their position by turning the descendants of yesterday’s immigrants against today’s.