Politics

Shikha Dalmia in Bloomberg Laments Pro-Immigration Conservatives Who Tout the "Chain Migration" Myth

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On immigration, it seems, the conservatives' principle is conservation of anti-immigration bias. If they tamp down animus against one set of immigrants, then they must whip it up against another.

How else to explain the gratuitous swipe against "chain migration" in an otherwise excellent commentary in the Wall Street Journal last week by Jeb Bush and Clint Bolick debunking virtually every other immigration myth on the right, asks Shikha Dalmia?

While calling for more employment-based immigration, for both skilled and unskilled foreign workers, Bush and Bolick maintained that since the 1960s, thanks to American emphasis on family reunification, the driver of immigration to the U.S. has been "chain migration," which purportedly allows immigrants to bring in their extended families until entire villages are emptied out.  

But "chain migration" is a myth cooked up by ultra-restrictionist organizations, such as NumbersUSA, that foster misunderstanding about how U.S. laws work and undermine more-welcoming policies.

Go here to read the whole thing.

Bonus material: Reason's flowchart on the long wait times that immigrants have to endure, thanks to our utterly broken immigration system.