Welcome to America

Matt Yglesias flags a poll showing increased support for amnesty for illegal immigrants, and has this to say:

That’s interesting. Conventional wisdom has had it that the recession should make public opinion more hostile to immigrants, but things seem to have moved in the opposite direction.

I'm not so sure about that. The last big immigration wave came in the early 20th century, and included lots of East and South Europeans. There was a lot of ethnic strife, tension, and resentment. Then along came the Great Depression, and a decade later no one really cared whose ancestors were Polish.

Now, World War 2 probably helped a lot with that. But my bet is that truly hard economic times reduce nativism rather than increase it. One reason is that, when times get rough, no one can afford to be discriminatory in who they hire or who they do business with. Another is that a depression produces a sense of shared suffering; the immigrants next door are just trying to make ends meet, just like you are. And a depression makes it abundantly clear to everyone that stagnating wages or difficulty finding a job are not caused by immigration, but by bigger things entirely.

Which is all to the good. Immigrants are the lifeblood of our economy, both in the short and the long term. They're the biggest advantage America has compared to other rich countries in Europe and Asia. We should be throwing them welcome parades.