More immigration

Recent disturbing images aside, I think that some people are losing their minds in the immigration debate. Talk of "Mexico North" and a demographic-based "reconquista" strike me as mindless hyperventilating. Let's keep some perspective. One of the best points I have seen is by Tyler Cowen:

I would also stress the benefits of a relatively free and prosperous Mexico on our southern border. The path is not without further bumps, but Mexico has turned the corner. Without high immigration, remittances (second biggest "export," I believe), and the spread of liberal democratic ideas, Mexico probably would have been much worse off. In the long run this will prove hugely beneficial to the United States, and of course to the rest of Latin America as well.

I think this can't be stressed enough. Immigration is not a one-way street and is a great way to export U.S. values. It also may be a way to promote better values at home, according to David Brooks (sorry, no link):

The facts show that the recent rise in immigration hasn't been accompanied by social breakdown, but by social repair. As immigration has surged, violent crime has fallen by 57 percent. Teen pregnancies and abortion rates have declined by a third. Teenagers are having fewer sexual partners and losing their virginity later. Teen suicide rates have dropped. The divorce rate for young people is on the way down.

...Hispanics and Hispanic immigrants have less money than average Americans, but they spend what they have on their families, usually in wholesome ways. According to Simmons Research, Hispanics are 57 percent more likely than average Americans to have purchased children's furniture in the past year. Mexican-Americans spend 93 percent more on children's music.

According to the government's Consumer Expenditure Survey, Hispanics spend more on gifts, on average, than other Americans. They're more likely to support their parents financially. They're more likely to have big family dinners at home.

This isn't alien behavior. It's admirable behavior, the antidote to the excessive individualism that social conservatives decry.

Similar points are made by John Podhoretz. I would add that Hispanic separatism is probably also exagerrated. For all of the Mexican flag waving, consider that Hispanics constitute 11% of U.S. military deaths in Iraq.

That's not to say there isn't a problem, however. The fact that high school students that are U.S. citizens would run around waving the flag of Mexico -- a country I would venture the majority of them have little direct experience with (i.e. living there) -- is bizarre. For that I don't blame imigration but multiculturalism.

When I went to elementary school in California we had to learn Spanish. We celebrated Cinco de Mayo. We did not recite the pledge of allegiance (not saying we should, but it gives you a sense of priorities). Is it any wonder that when you promote a philosophy that emphasizes differences among people that people then begin to notice...differences?