The Paradox of Immigration: Opposition Is Strongest Precisely Where There Are the Fewest Immigrants

[Judi Lynn]

The Paradox of Immigration: Opposition Is Strongest Precisely Where There Are the Fewest Immigrants

Kevin Drum
Jun. 25, 2016 6:58 PM

James Fallows is in western Kansas around Dodge City, where many of the cities are majority Latino and full of immigrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Cuba, and more recently Somalia and Sudan. Here's what he says:

I can’t let this day end without noting the black-versus-white, night-versus-day contrast between the way immigration, especially from Mexico and other parts of Latin America, is discussed in this part of the country where it is actually happening, versus its role in this moment’s national political discussion.

....Every single person we have spoken with — Anglo and Latino and other, old and young, native-born and immigrant, and so on down the list — every one of them has said: We need each other! There is work in this community that we all need to do. We can choose to embrace the world, or we can fade and die. And we choose to embrace it.

I don't have actual data on this, but my sense from both the US and Britain is that the most fervent opposition to immigration—legal or otherwise—comes precisely from the regions where it's had the least impact. Here in the US, for example, immigration from Latin America has been heaviest in the southern sun belt states of California, Texas, Arizona, and a few others. And yet Donald Trump's "build a wall" narrative played well in places like New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, all of which have relatively small Latino populations. Similarly, Brexit did best in the small towns and rural areas of England, the places that have the fewest immigrants and that depend the most on EU trade.

More:
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/06/paradox-immigration-opposition-strongest-precisely-where-there-are-fewest-them

Good Reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016161814

[TubbersUK]

1. This rings a big bell for me:

It's everywhere else, where immigration is mostly a fear, that anti-immigrant sentiment has the strongest purchase. And that's why peddling fear is so effective.

Given recent events in the UK.

[doc03]

2. I can agree with that. I live in eastern Ohio just next to WV there are very few

immigrants here but these people are obsessed with it. I think the black population is less than 5% and the N word is
used everyday especially by the older generation. What really pisses me off is hearing one of these assholes talk about the n---s
then they will act nice to them face to face what a bunch of hypocrites. Sometimes I would like to walk up and ask if they know what
these people call you behind your back. Oh they are real church people here too.

[xfundy]

3. Of course they're "church people"

The churches are the main sources of the hate virus.

[doc03]

4. From my experience I find the people that claim to be Christians

are by far the most bigoted. Seem like the younger people are more tolerant of others and also
less religious than older folks. I am 68 myself but I find it hard to talk to many people my age.
They see a mixed couple it's common for them to say they should be shot. We have a few Mexicans
working the oil and gas wells they are called spics.