Considering that around 20% of the world's immigrants live in the US, saying that US immigration is "designed to keep immigrants out" is grossly misleading.
The number may be wrong the sentiment seems reasonable. I would hardly call the U.S. hostile toward immigrants. I can’t think of many other countries that are as diverse as the U.S. Just in my apartment building I live next to a Russian couple, a Chinese couple, a Korean couple, and a Guatemalan couple.
Americans could be forgiven for having poll whiplash this week.
"Shock poll: Americans want massive cuts to legal immigration," said a headline from the Washington Times.
"Americans broadly embrace the Democratic immigration position," declared a Washington Post headline, with the release of a new ABC/Washington Post poll.
On immigration, as on any other issue, it can seem that there's a poll result that supports just about any position. Here's a look at immigration polls to explain what findings are shaky — and to highlight what can reasonably be concluded about Americans' views on immigration.
Immigration is one of the most divisive and polarised issues in US public policy, and one that brought to power the current POTUS. Saying the public unilateraly supports one side or another is naive at best, intentionally misleading at worst.
Define "immigration". One of the problems that smart, educated, intern-level immigrants have is they are getting caught in the crossfire of millions of uneducated day-laborers streaming over the border.
We should have increased immigration on a merit-based system (obviously college students would be a strong merit).
Surely from an economic perspective, the "best" immigrants are the kind who earn a lot, paying a lot of taxes into your state/country, while not using a lot of taxpayer dollars in terms of social services, not having a lot of children who go to public schools, etc?
