Next Time Someone Tells You That Immigrants Are Destroying Our Country, Show Them This

Give this video a chance, it's under 3 minutes long.

Here is the wonderful Hollie McNish and her poem about immigration.



It is nice to get away from the hate sometimes!

It's funny, people are always quick to rip on immigrants, but they have the tendency not conform to some of societal "norms" like not wanting to live with their parents, not wanting to help out your family, not wanting to work more than 40 hours a week without demanding overtime or bitching about it non stop.

I know a number of immigrant families, and they came and lived 10 to a house, and they took out 3 year or 5 year mortgages instead of 20 year or 30 year with high, high interest, only wanting to put minimal down payments with their 25 year loan. The immigrants, they worked 60 hours a week. They didn't complain or whine about not having the latest iPhone, or about taking care of their parents on the weekends, offering a helping hand to family, etc.

What happened?

Well, the immigrant families, 10 to a house, would all work to paying off a family home. It might be for the eldest first, (the grandparents.) Then they would get another one, and 1 or 2 might stay to take care of the grandparents, they might sponsor another family member from overseas. But they would buy another house, and all work, (some even min. wage) and they would pay off the second house and it might go to the newlyweds of the family.

In any case, fast forward 20 years, and you have a family of 10-15, with a couple delis, or convenience stores, maybe a restaurant, and all the member of the family would have paid off homes, cars that might be 5-10 years old but fully paid off, and the cars might have been shared at first, but after the 20 year period the youngest ones would get the old cars, the older ones a new model luxury car, and they all swapped around working at each other's businesses that were fully paid off, have dinners at each others homes that were fully paid off... And the youngest ones would be entering into university, their tuition supported by the family.



People complain about foreigners, but in many cases they are just bringing the attitudes that found North America with them. They aren't bound by all the stupid social faux pas that North Americaners created to try and purvey some false sense of success.

So many people will loan themselves into oblivion trying to get the latest greatest gadgets, or homes and cars they can't afford and it just isn't cool living with their parents or cousins brothers and sisters, so they go on and wonder why they just lost their job, after weeks earlier bitching about how they were being overworked.



Yep...

Hi reality, nice to meet you.



Cool poem by the way...

That was great! Her accent and presentation don't hurt at all.

Here's the text for those who cannot watch the video:

Hollie McNish - Mathematics

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Thanks for posting a link to the text ;-)

I think her accent added to it

Good find indeed .

Now all she has to do is rap it to the tune of Exodus by Bob Marley .

People will move around on this earth and there is nothing wrong with it .

Movement of Ja people , Exodus .

People generally do not have a problem with immigrants, its the illegal immigrants who are a problem.

They do not contribute to society in the same way.

Legal immigrants = awesome.
Illegal immigrants = very bad for America and very expensive for the US tax payer.

Those are two totally different things.

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


Cool poem, thanks for sharing.

And to all those banging on about immigration constantly, yet more evidence that it has been going on for thousands of years (so is a natural state for humans).

Britain was a nation of immigrants even in the Bronze Age

It's not just about employment.

They bring us new foods to try, new styles of clothes and attitudes and wisdom that we can learn from.

And for those of you complaining about how little english they speak, how often have you had the patience to help them practise speaking on subjects other than the milk you are buying?

Originally posted by FlyersFan
Legal immigrants = awesome.

Illegal immigrants = very bad for America and very expensive for the US tax payer.

Those are two totally different things.

The distinction made is only in the minds of human beings .
In reality there is no difference between a legal and illegal human being .

Actually anyone who says illegal immigration is bad is a liar. Plain and simple, it is lies. Most illegal immigrants pay sales, federal and state income taxes. Stop listening to idiotic politicians who are so bad at their job all they can do is make a fuss about illegal immigration hoping to get some talk time and cheap quick votes.

It is totaly idiotic to think for one second a piece of paper making you a legal entrant or an illegal entrant to a nation changes anything.

reply to post by 23432

The distinction made is only in the minds of human beings . In reality there is no difference between a legal and illegal human being

Exactly, refreshing to see you are not a brainwashed buffoon. Have a star.

reply to post by Hopechest

Originally posted by Hopechest
... its the illegal immigrants who are a problem.

They do not contribute to society in the same way.

And Irish people drink a lot, Arabs are terrorists, black people like watermelon and girls are not good at sports.

Stereotyping

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
reply to post by Hopechest

 

Originally posted by Hopechest
... its the illegal immigrants who are a problem.

They do not contribute to society in the same way.

And Irish people drink a lot, Arabs are terrorists, black people like watermelon and girls are not good at sports.

Stereotyping

It is not stereotyping in any way whatsoever.

Illegal immigrants pull more resources out of a society than they contribute. Legal immigrants do not.

reply to post by Hopechest

Originally posted by Hopechest
It is not stereotyping in any way whatsoever.

Illegal immigrants pull more resources out of a society than they contribute. Legal immigrants do not.

Any time you make a blanket statement like "this group" does "this", you are stereotyping. The truth is, many illegal immigrants actually contribute to society and the economy.

With immigration reform, newly authorized immigrant workers would produce enough new consumer spending to support 750,000 to 900,000 jobs.

Every additional foreign-born student who graduates in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) and remains in the U.S. creates an estimated 2.62 American jobs.

Every low-skilled, non-agricultural, temporary worker who comes to the U.S. to fill a job that may otherwise be left open creates an average of 4.64 U.S. jobs. These low-skilled jobs are the necessary backbone to support higher-skilled positions.

Passage of the DREAM Act would add $329 billion to the U.S. economy and create 1.4 million new jobs by 2030.
...
On average, immigrants, including the undocumented, pay nearly $1,800 more in taxes than they receive in benefits.

Households headed by undocumented immigrants paid $11.2 billion in state and local taxes in 2010. That included $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.6 billion in property taxes and $8.4 billion in sales taxes.

Get the Facts

reply to post by Tuttle


I have to question this line of thinking. I am not saying you are wrong, just that I can't see the logic.

Illegal immigrants pay "sales, federal, and state income taxes". So do millions of welfare recipients. Are they good for the economy too?

Illegal immigrants are "willing to work jobs nobody else wants for low wages" couple that with "they pay federal taxes", and I say they pay nothing in and get thousands back. EIC shoots that boat right out of the water.

I live in SW Detroit "Mexican Town" as the signs on I-75 proudly proclaim. I only have to walk outside to see what kind of utopia unchecked immigration creates. I have to wonder how many of the champions of immigration have illegals for neighbors...........

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
reply to post by Hopechest

 

Originally posted by Hopechest
It is not stereotyping in any way whatsoever.

Illegal immigrants pull more resources out of a society than they contribute. Legal immigrants do not.

Any time you make a blanket statement like "this group" does "this", you are stereotyping. The truth is, many illegal immigrants actually contribute to society and the economy.

With immigration reform, newly authorized immigrant workers would produce enough new consumer spending to support 750,000 to 900,000 jobs.

Every additional foreign-born student who graduates in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) and remains in the U.S. creates an estimated 2.62 American jobs.

Every low-skilled, non-agricultural, temporary worker who comes to the U.S. to fill a job that may otherwise be left open creates an average of 4.64 U.S. jobs. These low-skilled jobs are the necessary backbone to support higher-skilled positions.

Passage of the DREAM Act would add $329 billion to the U.S. economy and create 1.4 million new jobs by 2030.
...
On average, immigrants, including the undocumented, pay nearly $1,800 more in taxes than they receive in benefits.

Households headed by undocumented immigrants paid $11.2 billion in state and local taxes in 2010. That included $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.6 billion in property taxes and $8.4 billion in sales taxes.

Get the Facts

edit on 6/5/2013 by Benevolent Heretic because: (no reason given)

Your fact sheet is leaving out the statistic that the majority of income earned is sent back to the country of origin.

The rest is based on speculation, which I might add, is unproven because it is almost impossible to track. If your view was correct than having total open borders would be the ideal way to go but as history shows us, illegal immigration has never been positive.

I'm with you on this one hopechest.

Before I became a professional adventurer, I was in corporate finance for big pharma. I have a BS in economics from Penn and a Masters from Columbia.

Very very seldom in human history has a society massively benefited from massive unchecked immigration. Usually there is a temporary boon to the economy, but it is almost always temporary. From a historical perspective, unchecked immigration drives down wages, standards of living, standards of education, skill-set expectations, and a host of economic foundations that a society suffers from later on down the road.

An interesting example is the black death in Europe and the European Renaissance. 1/3 of the population was wiped out in successive bouts with the black death. Every single time the plague went away, wages were driven upwards because labor was in demand. Not only that, but highly skilled labor increased too as a greater proportion of the population needed to be skilled to fill the shoes of the high skilled people who died. As a result education institutions were founded, etc. etc. European Renaissance.

Germany in the 1960s is also a good example of the typical temporary need. Basically Germany allowed the immigration of a large number of Turks in the 1960s due to huge manufacturing demands for unskilled and inexpensive labor. Well, the large influx of migrant workers who never really became german became obsolete with the dawn of robotic welding, computerized cnc machines and so on and so forth. Those immigrant populations still exist in Germany, but have, demographically speaking, huge unemployment and claim state benefits. The problem is that since they never became integrated into the society, they are still relatively uneducated and unskilled. The chances of that demographic coming off of claim in the foreseeable future is low. The end is a massive drain on the state coffers for a population that for the most part is redundant.



Edit: Just to add. Legal immigration tends to drive one overriding aspect that is lacking in illegal immigration. That is integration. Legal immigration is extremely beneficial to host societies as can be seen by the US in the last two decades of the 19th and first two decades of the 20th century.

reply to post by 200Plus

Illegal immigrants pay "sales, federal, and state income taxes". So do millions of welfare recipients. Are they good for the economy too?

The argument is however illegal immigrants are bad for the country, simply because they are illegal immigrants. I find that sort of logic idiotic in the extreme, as you have just shown yourself it is not the legal status of a person alone that dictates wither or not they happen to be of a benefit to society.

reply to post by Hopechest

Your fact sheet is leaving out the statistic that the majority of income earned is sent back to the country of origin.

Im pretty sure a source is needed for that statement eh.

reply to post by 200Plus

Originally posted by 200Plus
I have to wonder how many of the champions of immigration have illegals for neighbors...........

I lived in Phoenix for 15 years and I've now lived in New Mexico for almost 15 years. I can't say if my neighbors in any of the places I've lived have been here illegally, but chances are, some were. In any case, I've certainly had my share of interaction and observations of them. And I'm speaking specifically of people from Mexico. Some were less than pleasant, while some were wonderful people who contributed to society and the economy and loved this country. Exactly like the people who were born here.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
reply to post by 200Plus

 

Originally posted by 200Plus
I have to wonder how many of the champions of immigration have illegals for neighbors...........

I lived in Phoenix for 15 years and I've now lived in New Mexico for almost 15 years. I can't say if my neighbors in any of the places I've lived have been here illegally, but chances are, some were. In any case, I've certainly had my share of interaction and observations of them. And I'm speaking specifically of people from Mexico. Some were less than pleasant, while some were wonderful people who contributed to society and the economy and loved this country. Exactly like the people who were born here.

Of course if you individualize these cases there is no problem. I am referring to the issue of illegal immigration from a generalized perspective.

It never benefits the host country in the long run. History is filled with examples of this. Spain in the 1500's when the Muslims migrated there would be a prime example of a country falling from a world power to one of mediocrity until the expulsion of the foreigners.

Its happened it Germany, in Britain with the Saxons......Sweden.....the list goes on and on.