Immigration
Ideas sparked by a conversation at Balliwicks. Jon Adams made me promise to publish.
A stray thought. Thinking about immigration today and all the controversy, I recalled what I was taught about immigration when I was a school age kid. And the first long essay I wrote.
We were told that Europe opened many jails (gaols) and sent prisoners far and wide—to the Americas, Australia and New Zealand. These countries did alright by them, as those with an entrepreneurial turn of mind were well represented in 18th century prison populations.
Facing squalor and lack of opportunity, many tried their hand at the only available chances. Good stock of immigrants, if a bit dicey. As well, those who fled famine and oppression added talent to the gene pool. They were also risk takers.
My point is that immigration has been an opportunity to enrich a population. I hope this still turns out to be the case.
Climate change is altering the geography of the world. Fertile lands are dry. Coastal lands under water. Areas that sustained large populations are becoming less and less habitable. Expect large population migrations. Assume a rebalancing of global population.
Should we see this as a dark night of conflict and war? Perhaps. But another way of looking at it might be an opportunity to enrich the populations of many lands.
The first paper I wrote that I remember with some degree of pride was in 7th or 8th grade. Three pages. Really long, right? The title was “The Pioneers.” In those long-forgotten days, we taught our children to honor the trail blazers, the “migrants.” I still remember that lesson and the poetry of Walt Whitman. (He wasn’t banned in those days.)
Have the elder races halted? Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond the seas? We take up the task eternal, and the burden and the lesson, Pioneers! O pioneers! All the past we leave behind, We debouch upon a newer mightier world ... Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and the march, Pioneers! O pioneers!