Immigrants built America! More legal immigration will build a better America

Editorial Board of The Washington Post echo opinion: The percentage of U.S residents born overseas today is the highest in more than a century, and the number of immigrants in this country has more than quadrupled since 1960.

"Canada does not struggle to police one of the world’s longest borders separating a mostly rich country from a mostly poor one, as the United States does along its southwestern frontier"

Those facts and a surge of unauthorized border crossings, which exceeded 2 million in the fiscal year that ended in September, a record, have contributed to unease and antagonism in some communities, Republican attacks on the Biden administration and, among Democrats, jitters about the political fallout.
Meanwhile, in Canada, the share of foreign-born residents — approaching one-quarter of the population — is markedly more than in the United States, and also at a more than 150-year high; few Western countries have a higher proportion of immigrants. Despite that, Canadian officials recently announced a substantial increase in immigration over the coming three years. In 2025, the goal is to admit 500,000 newcomers, a 23 percent increase from last year’s record total. The news prompted no widespread outcry.

The many differences between the two countries discourage facile comparisons. But one critical contrast is worth noting: Canada has a relatively functional immigration system that responds rationally to its economic needs. The United States does not.

Granted, Canada does not struggle to police one of the world’s longest borders separating a mostly rich country from a mostly poor one, as the United States does along its southwestern frontier. That affords Ottawa the luxury of simpler enforcement — that is, being able for the most part to select which migrants will be admitted and which refused. It is also the case that while there is broad consensus on immigration levels in Canada — well over half of Canadians favor welcoming more immigrants to boost population and help fill nearly 1 million job openings — there are danger signs. Specifically, nearly half of Canadians say too many newcomers fail to adopt “Canadian values.”

Still, Americans should consider taking some lessons from Canada, especially in an era of massive U.S. labor shortages, which have contributed to spiking inflation. Critically, the Canadian system gives preference to well educated, highly skilled and entrepreneurial migrants with strong earnings prospects. By contrast, the U.S. legal immigration system heavily favors family ties, meaning the relatives of current residents. Its H1-B program for skilled workers, including those with advanced degrees, has been capped for years at 85,000 visas annually; that is grossly inadequate.

Canada’s policy is no outlier; several of the world’s other wealthiest countries, particularly in Europe, are pursuing similarly sensible initiatives. They include France, where President Emmanuel Macron survived a stiff electoral challenge this spring from a far-right anti-immigration candidate, Marine Le Pen. His government, like Canada’s, is pursuing reforms that respond to economic reality, not xenophobic populism. This month, Mr. Macron’s administration proposed legislation to establish resident permits that would grant legal status to undocumented migrants already in France who could fill jobs in sectors desperate for workers, including agriculture, hospitality and construction. The legislation is expected to come before France’s parliament early next year.

French nativists howled but the country’s largest employers organization applauded the measure, which is designed to support the nation’s economy as it battles inflationary head winds. Officials took a measured tone, pledging to tighten enforcement by pursuing migrants who remain in the country after receiving deportation orders while at the same time pushing for the new residence permits.

In Germany, too, employers starved for workers have generally welcomed Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s promise, upon taking office last year, that “it’s high time we made life easier for immigrants to become German citizens.” In fact, the Scholz government has set a goal of attracting 400,000 qualified workers annually for the country, which has Europe’s biggest economy, and easing access to language and other courses to help assimilate migrants. A recent survey found the German economy is grappling with a record shortage in skilled workers, affecting nearly half of the country’s companies. That has forced many to slash production, costing the German economy as much as $85 billion on an annualized basis.

Elsewhere in Europe, the picture is mixed. In Italy, the far-right government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni took power this fall on an anti-immigration platform. Yet it is anyone’s guess who will fill low-skill jobs, including caregivers for the elderly, if migrants are barred or forced out of the country. Italians, whose birthrate has long been among the lowest among the world’s wealthy countries, are often in short supply for such positions.

Denmark is pursuing what might be one of the most self-defeating immigration policies among wealthy countries. Earlier this month, Danish voters handed a narrow victory to the center-left Social Democrats, who have embraced a “zero refugee” policy and proposed relocating asylum seekers to Rwanda, against their will, as their applications are processed. At the same time, Danish firms are facing a severe labor shortage, which many have called their biggest challenge.

Ironically, it was Donald Trump, the most nativist of recent American presidents, who proposed a reform based partly on the Canadian model, as well as similar point-based systems in Australia and New Zealand, that would tilt the balance of U.S. legal immigration toward skilled workers, while still retaining about one third of slots for relatives of current residents.

Mr. Trump’s blueprint was mainly an act of political positioning; once introduced, in 2019, it was rarely mentioned again. Nor did it take into account the reality of 10 or 11 million undocumented migrants, most of them long-standing members of U.S. communities, including nearly 2 million young “dreamers” raised and educated in this country.

Still, by acknowledging Canada’s example, the Trump proposal was a useful starting point. There are now 10.7 million jobs available in the United States, nearly 2 for every unemployed worker, and an ever-increasing share of the openings are for skilled employees. As a proportion of population, more jobs are vacant in the United States than Canada. Canada is wisely opening the door wider to the legal immigrants that its economy needs, while Congress, politically paralyzed, has proved itself unable to fix the United States’ broken
system.

The Post’s View | About the Editorial Board- Editorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the Editorial Board, based in the Opinions section and separate from the newsroom.