I think you have a stereotype in your head that applies to only a subset of immigrants. You're thinking of the H1B that busts his ass to get here. But you're overlooking the nephew who comes over years later under family reunification and is happy to live on subsidized housing and welfare benefits. Because of the way both the US and Canada treat family reunification, what happens is that a highly motivated initial wave of immigrants over time leads to waves of less motivated, less skilled immigrants. I've seen this in my own diaspora community (Bangladeshis)--especially over the last 10 years as migration hubs like NYC have become very generous with welfare benefits for immigrants. (Canada has always been that way. My cousin grew up in subsidized housing. While he was highly motivated and became a professional, tons of people around him were content to live on the welfare benefits.)
I'm not talking about skills at all and wasn't thinking of H1B. I'm talking about low-skilled people who come here with nothing and to build a life. They don't have much to cover indigent nephews, especially if they are undocumented.
I have no reason to think nephews are any different. The 'welfare queen' narrative has long been used by those opposing public benefits (one source dates it to 1974 and says Ronald Reagan used it) but they never substantiate it. IMHO it's blaming the victim - is there any data saying poverty is caused by laziness? The data I remember atm says, 1) (from decades ago) people move in and out of the welfare system; they don't tend to stay in it, and 2) (much more recently) the leading cause of homelessness is medical bills.
> NYC ... Canada
Some of the most economicly dynamic places on earth. New Yorkers credit immigrants for a lot of that, as has much of America (until very recently).
In places like New York, immigrants get lots of public support: https://empirejustice.org/wp-content/uploads/Public-Benefits.... I found out recently that lots of Bangladeshis are in on the program where the city pays you to take care of your elderly immigrant parents.
> I have no reason to think nephews are any different.
They are different. It’s self-selection. It’s much easier to immigrate through family reunification in both the U.S. and Canada. Again, it seems like you have a stereotype in your mind that’s based on the folks who face rigorous selection processes or significant adversity in immigrating. But go wander around Little Bangladesh in Queens or the high rise subsidized housing in Toronto where my aunt and uncle live. More than half of Bangladeshis in America receive government welfare. There is no logical reason why this should be the case, since the only meaningful pathway from there to here is H1B (or these days O visas). It’s not like the U.S. has a land border with Bangladesh and there’s a large influx of illegal immigrants from there.
The family reunification immigrants do not face the same selection pressures. Once there’s an ethnic network already in place in a city and government benefits, it’s very attractive for typical people to immigrate and take advantage of that. And these are typical people from countries that are deeply dysfunctional.
> NYC ... Canada
Some of the most economicly dynamic places on earth.
> New Yorkers credit immigrants for a lot of that
That’s a mythology that was developed to integrate the Ellis Island immigrants. But what’s the foundation of New York’s economy? It’s Wall Street, which dates back to 1703. London, which developed on a parallel course to New York, had few immigrants until the late 20th century. It was finance that powered the economic dynamism, not immigration. And note that there was a huge self-selection effect back then that doesn’t exist today. There was no welfare. Within 5 years. 30-50% of italian immigrants to America went back home: https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/italian/....
> In places like New York, immigrants get lots of public support: https://empirejustice.org/wp-content/uploads/Public-Benefits.... I found out recently that lots of Bangladeshis are in on the program where the city pays you to take care of your elderly immigrant parents.
That's great. I want to support people and I believe in them - it's a great investment in the economy and for humanity - and also giving these elderly people care from their own families, rather than being institutionalized or worse, is a fantastic solution. It's also applied more widely other places, not restricted to immigrants (if that restriction exists in NYC). Biden planned to cover home care more generally with Medicare. If you've seen or heard about the institutions, they are often warehouses for death and treatment can be awful.
> That’s a mythology that was developed to integrate the Ellis Island immigrants.
That 'myth' extends back to 1776 and before: 'All are created equal' is the foundation of America.
The mythology is in your comments: most of what you say has no basis - as I said, the welfare queen narratives are unsubstantiated (afaik) - but the old mythology of race, including its rationalizations based on (questionable) facts. That mythology is what keeps people poor.
As a prominent example, redlining was (and is to an extent) based on the mythology: The myth that black people were unworthy credit risks (along with outright hate) resulted in people being unable to get a loan, and therefore unable to buy a house or to do major repairs or upgrades if they did somehow get a home. Also, the government refused to insure loans in neighborhoods with even one black homeowner (or maybe resident), which motivated white homeowners to resist any black families moving into their neighborhood, and 'restrictive covenants' among real estate agents to not sell to black people. As a result, these people couldn't get credit and even with financing, couldn't find homes to buy, and even then couldn't upgrade or repair them. Then white people would look down on their lack of assets and care for their homes.
Similarly, Wall Street long excluded almost all but white males; to say that success was because of their race (and gender) is obviously absurd. Wall Street also caused the Great Depression, etc.; is that due to white males? World wars? Genocides? Starvation and disease? (Also, NY's economy has been the center of many industries, including trade - not just finance.)
So much is invested in racism, which has produced some of the worst results in human history and the worst in the US, when we could be figuring out solutions to make a better world.
