Overcrowding, not race, is America's immigration problem
Overcrowding, not race, is America's immigration problem
By Edward Luce
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: October 14 2006 03:00 | Last updated: October 14 2006 03:00
Some time in the next few days the 300 millionth American will be born or perhaps - so the joke goes - will cross illegally into the US from Mexico at night. Like many jokes, this one has a kernel of truth. In 1967, when America's population hit 200m, only five per cent of the country was foreign-born. Today that proportion has more than doubled. By 2043, when the US is projected to cross 400m, it is likely to be far higher. An increasingly large share will be Hispanic.
But America's population milestone is significant for reasons other than the politics of immigration. Samuel Huntingdon, the author of The Clash of Civilisations and the lesser-known Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity, may or may not speak for large numbers of Americans when he warns of the "unique and disturbing challenge" posed to America's social fabric by the influx of Mexicans. But history is definitely not on his side.
As the Washington-based Brookings Institution points out in an excellent series on America's 300m landmark*, fears of being swamped by un-American foreigners are older than America itself. Writing more than 20 years before the American revolution, Benjamin Franklin warned that the influx of Germans into Philadelphia "will shortly be so numerous as to Germanise us instead of our Anglifying them".
Today more Americans describe themselves of German than of British descent yet almost all of them are able to do so only in English. The notion that America's newer "Latino" arrivals will somehow convert America into a Spanish-speaking country is barely less tenable than Mr Franklin's fears about Germans.
It is fairly certain, however, that Hispanic immigrants will energise America's economy in much the same way as their Polish, Jewish, Irish and Italian predecessors - or indeed as do their less numerous contemporaries from Africa and Asia. As President George W. Bush once said, perhaps with one eye on the Hispanic vote: "Hell, if they can make it through the Great Bend we want 'em."
It is true that America is becoming less white, assuming - as the US Census Bureau does - that you define Hispanics as non-white. Some Americans sublimate their fear of being swamped by darker skins by talking instead about the linguistic or cultural threat to the American way of life. But the very fact that only a tiny slice of rightwing nuts feel able to articulate their racial fears suggests that the tide is permanently against them.
Between 1980 and 2000 the proportion of Americans in racially mixed marriages doubled to six per cent. A quarter of Americans say they have a close relative of a different colour. In short, there is little reason to believe the character of America's current expansion is a serious threat to its long tradition of assimilating large numbers of newcomers from strange lands.
More interesting, but perhaps less appreciated, is what America's continued expansion means for its future quality of life - and, indeed, that of the rest of the planet. Nobody who drives through America's seemingly endless suburbs and "exurbs" can miss the tension between the country's vast open horizons and the increasing traffic gridlock around them. Nor can they fail to notice that it is America's sprawling urban environs, rather than the cities themselves, that are accommodating the country's growing numbers. It is true that America's population density is still less than a quarter that of continental Europe. But Europe's population growth has reached a virtual standstill. Besides, there are not too many Americans who aspire to live in North Dakota.
For the large majority of Americans living near or on its east or west coastlines, the reality of growing population density is hard to ignore. What were once isolated mountain escapes or unblemished patches of coastline are now jam-packed with resorts, second homes and, of course, snaking queues of traffic. So condensed have America's coastlines become that it is often hard to distinguish one built-up area from another because what falls in between is crammed with the same strip malls and chain motels as the last.
Imagine America a generation from now with one-third more freeways, out-of-town malls, refuse landfills, residential developments and sports utility vehicles than it has today. That, of course, is without mentioning the threat of global warming to which Americans disproportionately contribute. With 4 per cent of the planet's population, America contributes a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
Like many others, I will raise my glass to the vibrant culture of diversity and optimism that is symbolised by America's latest notch on the population ladder. But, like growing numbers of mainstream Americans, I will also ask whether this is the latest sign of America's economic success or a reminder that growth cannot continue in this fashion indefinitely. It is a good question to which the answer is yes, and probably.
*http://www.brookings.edu/comm/infocus/300million.htm
The writer is the FT's Washington bureau chief
By Edward Luce
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: October 14 2006 03:00 | Last updated: October 14 2006 03:00
Some time in the next few days the 300 millionth American will be born or perhaps - so the joke goes - will cross illegally into the US from Mexico at night. Like many jokes, this one has a kernel of truth. In 1967, when America's population hit 200m, only five per cent of the country was foreign-born. Today that proportion has more than doubled. By 2043, when the US is projected to cross 400m, it is likely to be far higher. An increasingly large share will be Hispanic.
But America's population milestone is significant for reasons other than the politics of immigration. Samuel Huntingdon, the author of The Clash of Civilisations and the lesser-known Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity, may or may not speak for large numbers of Americans when he warns of the "unique and disturbing challenge" posed to America's social fabric by the influx of Mexicans. But history is definitely not on his side.
As the Washington-based Brookings Institution points out in an excellent series on America's 300m landmark*, fears of being swamped by un-American foreigners are older than America itself. Writing more than 20 years before the American revolution, Benjamin Franklin warned that the influx of Germans into Philadelphia "will shortly be so numerous as to Germanise us instead of our Anglifying them".
Today more Americans describe themselves of German than of British descent yet almost all of them are able to do so only in English. The notion that America's newer "Latino" arrivals will somehow convert America into a Spanish-speaking country is barely less tenable than Mr Franklin's fears about Germans.
It is fairly certain, however, that Hispanic immigrants will energise America's economy in much the same way as their Polish, Jewish, Irish and Italian predecessors - or indeed as do their less numerous contemporaries from Africa and Asia. As President George W. Bush once said, perhaps with one eye on the Hispanic vote: "Hell, if they can make it through the Great Bend we want 'em."
It is true that America is becoming less white, assuming - as the US Census Bureau does - that you define Hispanics as non-white. Some Americans sublimate their fear of being swamped by darker skins by talking instead about the linguistic or cultural threat to the American way of life. But the very fact that only a tiny slice of rightwing nuts feel able to articulate their racial fears suggests that the tide is permanently against them.
Between 1980 and 2000 the proportion of Americans in racially mixed marriages doubled to six per cent. A quarter of Americans say they have a close relative of a different colour. In short, there is little reason to believe the character of America's current expansion is a serious threat to its long tradition of assimilating large numbers of newcomers from strange lands.
More interesting, but perhaps less appreciated, is what America's continued expansion means for its future quality of life - and, indeed, that of the rest of the planet. Nobody who drives through America's seemingly endless suburbs and "exurbs" can miss the tension between the country's vast open horizons and the increasing traffic gridlock around them. Nor can they fail to notice that it is America's sprawling urban environs, rather than the cities themselves, that are accommodating the country's growing numbers. It is true that America's population density is still less than a quarter that of continental Europe. But Europe's population growth has reached a virtual standstill. Besides, there are not too many Americans who aspire to live in North Dakota.
For the large majority of Americans living near or on its east or west coastlines, the reality of growing population density is hard to ignore. What were once isolated mountain escapes or unblemished patches of coastline are now jam-packed with resorts, second homes and, of course, snaking queues of traffic. So condensed have America's coastlines become that it is often hard to distinguish one built-up area from another because what falls in between is crammed with the same strip malls and chain motels as the last.
Imagine America a generation from now with one-third more freeways, out-of-town malls, refuse landfills, residential developments and sports utility vehicles than it has today. That, of course, is without mentioning the threat of global warming to which Americans disproportionately contribute. With 4 per cent of the planet's population, America contributes a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
Like many others, I will raise my glass to the vibrant culture of diversity and optimism that is symbolised by America's latest notch on the population ladder. But, like growing numbers of mainstream Americans, I will also ask whether this is the latest sign of America's economic success or a reminder that growth cannot continue in this fashion indefinitely. It is a good question to which the answer is yes, and probably.
*http://www.brookings.edu/comm/infocus/300million.htm
The writer is the FT's Washington bureau chief
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