I think the problem with people from India is that it seems like our jobs are going to them versus Americans already here. Then when Indians get in positions of leadership, more jobs go to Indians. I have no problem with Indians that are Americans but our jobs need to be offered to American citizens first. Americans, particularly white Americans can’t even make it into our own school programs, much less jobs. This is so frustrating for parents of American citizens.
The more general term is favoritism. Cognizant, Oracle, Intel all had suits filed for Indian favoritism hiring. Reporting and employee accounts (including from Dalit engineers at Google, Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, etc.) describe dominant-caste Indian networks favoring peers in hiring, referrals, and reviews, replicating patterns from India.
Allegations include caste-based bias, slurs, and discriminatory practices; some firms faced formal claims. Anecdotes also cite regional preferences (e.g., Telugu managers/employees dominating parts of Walmart IT hiring; Gujarati preference alleged at Intel; cricket networks for internships). A former Google contractor alleged Indian employees shared openings and interview questions within networks. Cases against firms like Tech Mahindra and Tata Consultancy Services have alleged systemic favoritism toward South Asian workers, sometimes involving H-1B practices (some claims advanced, others trimmed procedurally).
Nepotism, maybe you’re right. Favoritism, commonly described and cases filed.
Maybe not widespread hiring of family members, but Indians (as well as blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, etc.) hire other Indians rather than hiring the most qualified.
And then there's the whole Apu situation where Disney decided to stop having him be in The Simpsons due to allegedly stereotyping. Do you think that Indians got offended by him existing or just the fact Disney unceremoniously dumped him?
I would add that massive amounts of immigration has made housing prices soar, lowers wages & benefits as immigrants will work for less of both, emergency rooms over run, esl costs in public schools, and demands of cultural catering to some groups while erasing Americans culture
It's called "Supply and Demand."When you have a lot of people enter the country they take up housing and thus a shortage occurs, because of the shortage the existing real estate becomes more valuable and the price goes up. It may be true that a lot of migrants legal and illegal migrants build houses and they are paid less, which lowers wages for everyone, but the saving in labor are not passed to the consumer it stays in the landlord/ owners pocket. He/She does not lower the price of the house because it was built cheaper than the last one. When we are flooded with immigrants without federal regulation, which we are btw, it hurts everyone especially American citizens who can't even afford to buy a home now. Who is getting the better end of the stick? The immigrant or the American citizen? In 1996 Bill Clinton saw that migration was sucking us dry. He signed IIRARIRA it was updated sweeping immigration laws. By 2000 we went from a 290 billion dollar budget deficit to a 230 billion dollar surplus and he managed to get 13 million immigrants to leave without paying them to do so. He cut off their access to healthcare and every other benefit they managed to acquire.
It was the first time our budget was balanced since 1969. Think Immigrants aren't costing America and Americans? Think again.There are immigrants however, that enter legally that do not just come to take, that come to contribute to be a part of America, those are the ones we want.
It used to be Americans until all the construction wages were reduced to where it is hard to make a living building houses. All the profit goes to the companies, all the costs for low-wage immigration; Aid to Dependent mothers, housing, food stamps, medical, schooling for their children, goes to the American Taxpayer.
America's successful history with immigration included a half-century near total ban in the middle of the 20th century, which the voters demanded when the foreign-born fraction was lower than it is today. If we want to remain successful, we need another ban. But I'm not opposed to immigration in principle. It just needs to go slowly enough to not disrupt the politics, culture, or demographics of the host country.
Because the key identity of being American is a responsibility for self-government, we should preferentially admit immigrants from countries with long histories of successful self-government. We should admit immigrants of both sexes in roughly equal numbers (unlike the UT photo). And we should have a very tough line against chain migration.
There is nothing bigger than going to a UT (University of Texas) football game for anyone in Austin, much less for anyone remotely connected to UT. Any self-respecting Texan -- excluding Aggies of course -- knows that! This is true for men and women, girls and boys. Clearly you are not a Texan!
Of course I'm not a Texan. But I have family there, and a brother who is a Prof there, and none of the women in the family go to football games. So what?
You don’t get it. Getting tix to get into UT games is really, really difficult EVEN for professors! If any man, woman, or child has a chance to go to a UT game, especially now when UT is ranked #1 IN THE COUNTRY, they are THRILLED to go! This is TEXAS! Football is a religion and everyone believes in it!! If you don’t get that, you know NOTHING about Texas and Texans.
The other issue regarding immigration that must be included in any discussion is that of "family reunification".
Personally, I would like a near total ban on all immigration for a decade, at minimum, but I don't see that happening unfortunately. (I am married to the son of legal immigrants so I am absolutely not "anti immigrant" but the current system is broken and needs to be completely overhauled.)
However, barring a total ban, the one change that MUST be implemented immediately is an end to chain migration and family reunification! Our social service networks are overwhelmed with older family members of those who came here on some type of work visa. As soon as it was permitted (usually within a few years) they brought their parents, their in-laws, and anyone else they possibly could, in many situations! These are the ones that have ZERO interest in assimilation, refuse to learn English, and end up on Medicaid, while collecting SSI and other benefits intended for low income elderly Americans! If the one person who is working has three, four, five family members all collecting $1000 per month in cash, plus SNAP, from systems into which they never paid a dime, it all adds up to a nice sum, which is why the price of housing in my area is completely out of reach for my kids, who have lived here their whole lives and have decent jobs but still can't afford even a starter house!
When my in-laws came here, they had to say goodbye to their parents, their siblings and their country. They also had to sign agreements that they would NEVER be eligible for ANY public assistance. They learned English (which was the only language available in the business world, the schools, and in the halls of government) and they worked hard! They kept aspects of their old culture but they also did their best to integrate fully into their new country and I simply do not see that happening now!!
How are they collecting SSI? Not only is there a five year waiting period after they arrive, but they also need to have worked for 10 years to qualify for SI. Plus, with means testing, isn't their sponsors' income considered?
SSI is not the same as Social Security, which must be paid into before someone can receive payments...SSI is a supplemental system for "low income seniors" and does not have the same requirements.
I do not understand HOW family members of immigrant workers "qualify" but I worked in banking for many years and cashed their checks every month so I KNOW that it is happening!
I'm definitely no expert on SSI, but here is what Gemini said when I asked:
The 5-Year Bar: Under federal law, most lawfully admitted permanent residents who entered the U.S. on or after August 22, 1996, must wait at least 5 years before they can qualify for SSI, even if they meet other criteria (like age or disability).
The 40-Credit Rule (Work History): To qualify for SSI after the 5-year bar, a non-citizen generally needs 40 quarters (about 10 years) of work history in the U.S.
I appreciate what you are saying and I do not understand how people who have never worked in this country, and have never paid into any systems, are drawing benefits but I dealt with it personally for many years and it is happening!
If you've been in a social security office lately you will know that it is filled with people who do not even speak English so I am assuming there are workarounds to the system and they are exploiting them!
We have been told for years that people in this country illegally are not receiving social services but that's a lie too and the evidence is out there. So, whatever Gemini may say, there are elderly family members of immigrants who are receiving benefits that were intended for American taxpayers!
It's a good article, but misses a key issue. I'm an immigrant from India myself, came here as a grad student with 99% GRE scores to a computer science MS, and got my green card at a time when the computer industry really didn't have enough American talent. But I am dismayed and angered by the H1B scam that imports Indians to replace Americans. There is MASSIVE fraud in the H1B program, and Americans are being hurt by it. Trump was supposed to fix it, and has barely put on a bandaid. Democrats have no intention of fixing it. Why? Tech billionaire campaign contributions. NO ONE is American First in DC.
Well-stated by CR: we need to have a thoughtful slowdown + reasonable requirements for assimilation.
Does anyone recall reading about the very high-performing secondary schools (charter schools maybe?) that would try ro incorporate lower-performing students? Predictably, these students would thrive in the better schools, but when a certain percentage of incoming new students (versus existing high-performing) was crossed the entire system would suffer - the school was no longer performing at its' previous level.
Back in the 1990s I went to a STEM magnet school that was basically all Asian and Jewish with five white kids (one hispanic, one black).
Japan and the East Asian tigers hadn't yet experienced decades of stagnation.
The TFR of Korea was 1.5 instead of 0.7.
People debated whether Democratic India would overtake Autocratic China (which itself was expected to liberalize as it got rich). Answer: Autocratic China won.
Places like California and New York were not dysfunctional one party leftist states with white minorities, but aspirational places you wanted to move to instead of move away from.
Places like Canada hadn't run experiments importing lots of Indians that worked out disastrously yet.
Back then, I thought Asians, and specifically the Asian work ethic, were superior and would overtake us. I grinded a lot when I was younger to imitate my peers. Only a small portion of that grinding really led to anything, and most of my success today is definitely of the white person "work smarter not harder" mentality.
I didn't know anything about genetics or IQ or HBD or anything. I didn't know much about Goodhearting or what really creates innovation and growth. I came from a working class household that basically assumed hard work = good outcomes and working harder pretty much always made you a better person who deserved more and everyone gets what they deserve more or less.
Chris, you're about the same age as me. I know what your expected the world to be like based on the facts at the time. It didn't happen. After twenty years of new evidence, most of which was devestating for Asia, I updated my priors. This evidence comes at both the statistical level (GDP, birthrates, etc), the personal level (all my fresh of the boat "based" asian friends assimilated to being shitlibs), and then a catastrophe of COVID (watching the way asians behaved during COVID made me realize assimilation is impossible and that electoral changes due to demographic change could have real impacts on my daily life).
I think you get all this "let's stop the rate of immigration but talk nicely about it and not be racist."
I just think it's hard to shut off immigration without discussing WHY. What specific traits do these foreigners have that you don't want impacting the system. Citing record high foreign born % is sort of a way to dodge the question, if people are good to have then more is better and any problems in the short term will reverse in the long term. Are you going to force people to live in a country with a GDP of $2,800 a year where there is shit in the street everywhere just because a statistic has reached a certain level? I don't think that's going to hold up. But if you think that immigration is gong to make us more like the place they come from, that's a good reason.
That's last is the key. Every Indian immigrant makes America a little bit more like India. There are worse countries to resemble. But there are also better. We should have legal preferences to admit immigrants primarily from the better.
The fact that more than 70% of the H1B go to a single country is ridiculous. India is not the only country in the world, there are talented people everywhere
Muslims and Indians do not get along.. which is why Pakistan was created.. India and Pakistan split in 1947 primarily due to rising religious nationalism, political disagreements over power-sharing.. I have say I looked that up.. and A.I came back w/ half an answer and is rewriting history.. it got that part right but it was NOT BECAUSE OF BRITISH COLONIALISM.. Ok because of that I will just read the rest of the responses I don't have the time to deal/w A.I.. Christopher Rufo is a smart guy. has his own opinions which I don't always agree w/ I do know form my son's experiences work for CVENT and TEK fields he got a long real well w/ the Indians but there is sweat shop mentality.. which pervades INDIA RUN computer shops. which Americans do not. He said that the INDIA indians come in sick,,work long hours and to save up for their four week holiday in INDIA with their families IN INDIA. and while they do assimilate well.. language and culture and free enterprise and mind their own business. the H 1 visas do not help AMERICANS who are software engineers. OUTTA HERE
Good piece, Chris, but be careful in assuming (as so many do) that past waves of immigrants were readily and easily assimilated into American life. The great wave of immigration between 1880-1920 was marked by large amounts of violence, anarchism, and disorder, as the US sought to integrate large numbers of foreigners who were allowed in primarily because they were a cheap labor force--sorry, Emma Lazarus. The period between 1920-1970, in which immigration was greatly restricted by law, economic depression, and war, was also the time when the American people, notwithstandint the many social crises of the era, were probably the most unified they had ever been.The mass migration since then has seen the unraveling of that unity. For all too many of the new immigrants, "assimilation" is a bad word.
We need an immigration moratorium of a generation or more to allow time to assimilate this most recent wave of mass immigration. The survival of the country demands it.
That wave also led to the massive leftward tilt of US politics forever and the death of true American constitutional republicanism with the rise of FDR and new deal politics
I live in a neighborhood in Texas that is highly populated with Indians. I have not necessarily had issues with Indians in the past, and to be honest they aren't the worst neighbors to have however my city has taken in so many of them it is overwhelming. I do agree there is something to the massive wave in such a short time being a big part of the problem. Also they do tend to stick to their cliques and not really socialize with Americans in my experience. We need to turn the spicket off and send off the ones committing H1B fraud.
I own a shared house in Seattle and have had several Indian tech worker housemates over the years. There’s a couple things that I’ve noted, number one is a lack of soft skills. These men from the upper castes are shipped off to boarding schools and then shipped off to Northwestern University or whatever of several other colleges that tend to attract cut-throat Indian students from boarding schools. They don’t have the social skills that I believe our culture requires, and they don’t seem to be acquiring them. I’ve had people come to a house brunch and under the breath I can hear them saying networking networking. Remember, this is networking. They also don’t have the same respect for women that I wish they had. Also, out of their mouths, I hear that working at Amazon, the meetings are just people swearing and screaming at each other. I think that social skills / soft skills are essential to a functioning America. I also think that when we bring in cultures that disrespect women we’re making a mistake. One thing I’ve noticed is that there’s no one onboarding these people that come to college or H1B. There’s no onboarding to America. The first time these people are onboarded is when they have their interview for their green card which of course is the gold standard of what they’re seeking. I can attest to the fact that these men largely have no idea about social graces. Also, I question the degree mill keeping some of these colleges alive. One of the recent housemates has a master's in economics from Northwestern, yet he didn't know what the financialization of America was (the K-shaped economy, so to speak). Oh, boy. I do think, at the top of reasons why we import all these people, is our failed education system. I look forward to that changing so that we can compete, and that's not to discount the shady deals that happen regarding H-1Bs.
A lot of assimilation is behavior, how Americans are expected to treat each other. As immigrants have become a larger share of the middle and upper middle class, the old social norms of behavior has sort of evaporated.
This is the correct take. And we already have a fine mechanism to reduce immigration that's extremely popular: completely cut off illegal immigration and implement mandatory e-verify, the dream of immigration hawks for a generation. Then reform! He H1B program away from being an indentured servant program for big tech to bring an actual color-blind high skill visa for professionals we actually need (much more than tech workers: WE NEED MORE DOCTORS) and you've solved immigration
Personal anecdote only. With massive numbers of Indian in-laws working at the top of Silicon Valley, I have never been able to interest a single one in America's founding Anglo philosophy and culture. Madison? Adams? Burke? Locke? Milton? Shakespeare? Chaucer? Anything prior to Mill is just so much obscurantism. "Don't you want to know where America came from," I finally I asked one young man. His answer: "Frankly, I don't care."
I like this article very much. It is, as they used to say, very fair and balanced. When I saw the Indian boys cheering for UTA football, I had a positive reaction; it looked like assimilation to me. But I have worked with dozens of Indian-born Ph.D. engineering students, so I know them, and I am positive about them.
I found this thought interesting: "I believe the best path forward is to slow down the flow of immigration to match our capacity to assimilate newcomers." There is no doubt that we can measure and control the legal immigration rate. But to match that to the rate of assimilation, implies that we can measure the latter rate. I don't think we can and, if not, then that makes this impossible to do. Some groups seem to assimilate easily and other groups seem to resist assimilation. Further, assimilation is a fuzzy concept. We sort of know it when we see it.
I think the best approach is to revamp the immigration system entirely, while keeping our borders closed and secure: north, south, east and west. Then assess what we need in terms of background and professions, and admit people with those skill sets from other nations, including Europe, at reasonably slow rates. We should keep the rate of immigration low for the foreseeable future. We have at least 15,000,000 people who came here unvetted and illegally. We need to deal with them before we admit (legally) any more migrants.
Well, India has a lot of people in it. And, when you have that many people, there are likely to be more high performers. (Isn't that how it works in high school sports)? Anyway, we take the cream of their crop and I would never apologize for that. But the "chain migration" and "re-uniting families" thing has to end. Because in India, one's "constitutional rights" are secondary to the religious and cultural duties placed on one from birth. And those religious rules are enforced by the State. This is a far cry from our system and its acceptance here would mean the death of our democracy.
I think the problem with people from India is that it seems like our jobs are going to them versus Americans already here. Then when Indians get in positions of leadership, more jobs go to Indians. I have no problem with Indians that are Americans but our jobs need to be offered to American citizens first. Americans, particularly white Americans can’t even make it into our own school programs, much less jobs. This is so frustrating for parents of American citizens.
That would be the nepotism Chris speaks of.
There's no good evidence of systemic Indian nepotism in hiring
Nepotism is hiring family members.
The more general term is favoritism. Cognizant, Oracle, Intel all had suits filed for Indian favoritism hiring. Reporting and employee accounts (including from Dalit engineers at Google, Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, etc.) describe dominant-caste Indian networks favoring peers in hiring, referrals, and reviews, replicating patterns from India.
Allegations include caste-based bias, slurs, and discriminatory practices; some firms faced formal claims. Anecdotes also cite regional preferences (e.g., Telugu managers/employees dominating parts of Walmart IT hiring; Gujarati preference alleged at Intel; cricket networks for internships). A former Google contractor alleged Indian employees shared openings and interview questions within networks. Cases against firms like Tech Mahindra and Tata Consultancy Services have alleged systemic favoritism toward South Asian workers, sometimes involving H-1B practices (some claims advanced, others trimmed procedurally).
Nepotism, maybe you’re right. Favoritism, commonly described and cases filed.
Maybe not widespread hiring of family members, but Indians (as well as blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, etc.) hire other Indians rather than hiring the most qualified.
What's the statistical evidence of this
Intelligent, aware people have empirical knowledge of many things.
And then there's the whole Apu situation where Disney decided to stop having him be in The Simpsons due to allegedly stereotyping. Do you think that Indians got offended by him existing or just the fact Disney unceremoniously dumped him?
I would add that massive amounts of immigration has made housing prices soar, lowers wages & benefits as immigrants will work for less of both, emergency rooms over run, esl costs in public schools, and demands of cultural catering to some groups while erasing Americans culture
I think it would be good if property ownership were a right of citizenship. All others can rent from Americans.
Immigration, on net, lowers housing prices. Who do you think builds the houses?
It's called "Supply and Demand."When you have a lot of people enter the country they take up housing and thus a shortage occurs, because of the shortage the existing real estate becomes more valuable and the price goes up. It may be true that a lot of migrants legal and illegal migrants build houses and they are paid less, which lowers wages for everyone, but the saving in labor are not passed to the consumer it stays in the landlord/ owners pocket. He/She does not lower the price of the house because it was built cheaper than the last one. When we are flooded with immigrants without federal regulation, which we are btw, it hurts everyone especially American citizens who can't even afford to buy a home now. Who is getting the better end of the stick? The immigrant or the American citizen? In 1996 Bill Clinton saw that migration was sucking us dry. He signed IIRARIRA it was updated sweeping immigration laws. By 2000 we went from a 290 billion dollar budget deficit to a 230 billion dollar surplus and he managed to get 13 million immigrants to leave without paying them to do so. He cut off their access to healthcare and every other benefit they managed to acquire.
It was the first time our budget was balanced since 1969. Think Immigrants aren't costing America and Americans? Think again.There are immigrants however, that enter legally that do not just come to take, that come to contribute to be a part of America, those are the ones we want.
yes, it's called supply and demand. without immigrants, the demand goes down a little. the supply completely stops. effectively, no more construction.
'which lowers wages for everyone, but the saving in labor are not passed to the consumer it stays in the landlord/ owners pocket"
that's just not how economics works.
It used to be Americans until all the construction wages were reduced to where it is hard to make a living building houses. All the profit goes to the companies, all the costs for low-wage immigration; Aid to Dependent mothers, housing, food stamps, medical, schooling for their children, goes to the American Taxpayer.
America's successful history with immigration included a half-century near total ban in the middle of the 20th century, which the voters demanded when the foreign-born fraction was lower than it is today. If we want to remain successful, we need another ban. But I'm not opposed to immigration in principle. It just needs to go slowly enough to not disrupt the politics, culture, or demographics of the host country.
Because the key identity of being American is a responsibility for self-government, we should preferentially admit immigrants from countries with long histories of successful self-government. We should admit immigrants of both sexes in roughly equal numbers (unlike the UT photo). And we should have a very tough line against chain migration.
Bravo, CMart, you said it before I did... Yes, immigation in principle is good, but it cannot be too many/too fast.
That was a football game, and most Indian women are not interested in football. The photo is not a good indicator.
I am Irish and I am not interested in Football either.
There is nothing bigger than going to a UT (University of Texas) football game for anyone in Austin, much less for anyone remotely connected to UT. Any self-respecting Texan -- excluding Aggies of course -- knows that! This is true for men and women, girls and boys. Clearly you are not a Texan!
Of course I'm not a Texan. But I have family there, and a brother who is a Prof there, and none of the women in the family go to football games. So what?
You don’t get it. Getting tix to get into UT games is really, really difficult EVEN for professors! If any man, woman, or child has a chance to go to a UT game, especially now when UT is ranked #1 IN THE COUNTRY, they are THRILLED to go! This is TEXAS! Football is a religion and everyone believes in it!! If you don’t get that, you know NOTHING about Texas and Texans.
About 3/4 H1-B from India are male. This isn't healthy.
The other issue regarding immigration that must be included in any discussion is that of "family reunification".
Personally, I would like a near total ban on all immigration for a decade, at minimum, but I don't see that happening unfortunately. (I am married to the son of legal immigrants so I am absolutely not "anti immigrant" but the current system is broken and needs to be completely overhauled.)
However, barring a total ban, the one change that MUST be implemented immediately is an end to chain migration and family reunification! Our social service networks are overwhelmed with older family members of those who came here on some type of work visa. As soon as it was permitted (usually within a few years) they brought their parents, their in-laws, and anyone else they possibly could, in many situations! These are the ones that have ZERO interest in assimilation, refuse to learn English, and end up on Medicaid, while collecting SSI and other benefits intended for low income elderly Americans! If the one person who is working has three, four, five family members all collecting $1000 per month in cash, plus SNAP, from systems into which they never paid a dime, it all adds up to a nice sum, which is why the price of housing in my area is completely out of reach for my kids, who have lived here their whole lives and have decent jobs but still can't afford even a starter house!
When my in-laws came here, they had to say goodbye to their parents, their siblings and their country. They also had to sign agreements that they would NEVER be eligible for ANY public assistance. They learned English (which was the only language available in the business world, the schools, and in the halls of government) and they worked hard! They kept aspects of their old culture but they also did their best to integrate fully into their new country and I simply do not see that happening now!!
How are they collecting SSI? Not only is there a five year waiting period after they arrive, but they also need to have worked for 10 years to qualify for SI. Plus, with means testing, isn't their sponsors' income considered?
SSI is not the same as Social Security, which must be paid into before someone can receive payments...SSI is a supplemental system for "low income seniors" and does not have the same requirements.
I do not understand HOW family members of immigrant workers "qualify" but I worked in banking for many years and cashed their checks every month so I KNOW that it is happening!
I'm definitely no expert on SSI, but here is what Gemini said when I asked:
The 5-Year Bar: Under federal law, most lawfully admitted permanent residents who entered the U.S. on or after August 22, 1996, must wait at least 5 years before they can qualify for SSI, even if they meet other criteria (like age or disability).
The 40-Credit Rule (Work History): To qualify for SSI after the 5-year bar, a non-citizen generally needs 40 quarters (about 10 years) of work history in the U.S.
I appreciate what you are saying and I do not understand how people who have never worked in this country, and have never paid into any systems, are drawing benefits but I dealt with it personally for many years and it is happening!
If you've been in a social security office lately you will know that it is filled with people who do not even speak English so I am assuming there are workarounds to the system and they are exploiting them!
We have been told for years that people in this country illegally are not receiving social services but that's a lie too and the evidence is out there. So, whatever Gemini may say, there are elderly family members of immigrants who are receiving benefits that were intended for American taxpayers!
It's a good article, but misses a key issue. I'm an immigrant from India myself, came here as a grad student with 99% GRE scores to a computer science MS, and got my green card at a time when the computer industry really didn't have enough American talent. But I am dismayed and angered by the H1B scam that imports Indians to replace Americans. There is MASSIVE fraud in the H1B program, and Americans are being hurt by it. Trump was supposed to fix it, and has barely put on a bandaid. Democrats have no intention of fixing it. Why? Tech billionaire campaign contributions. NO ONE is American First in DC.
Didn’t have enough talent? Who invented the computer? Indians? 😂😂😂
You can't understand basic English? Simple English too complex for you? Apparently.
Remedial reading classes recommended.
Well-stated by CR: we need to have a thoughtful slowdown + reasonable requirements for assimilation.
Does anyone recall reading about the very high-performing secondary schools (charter schools maybe?) that would try ro incorporate lower-performing students? Predictably, these students would thrive in the better schools, but when a certain percentage of incoming new students (versus existing high-performing) was crossed the entire system would suffer - the school was no longer performing at its' previous level.
Back in the 1990s I went to a STEM magnet school that was basically all Asian and Jewish with five white kids (one hispanic, one black).
Japan and the East Asian tigers hadn't yet experienced decades of stagnation.
The TFR of Korea was 1.5 instead of 0.7.
People debated whether Democratic India would overtake Autocratic China (which itself was expected to liberalize as it got rich). Answer: Autocratic China won.
Places like California and New York were not dysfunctional one party leftist states with white minorities, but aspirational places you wanted to move to instead of move away from.
Places like Canada hadn't run experiments importing lots of Indians that worked out disastrously yet.
Back then, I thought Asians, and specifically the Asian work ethic, were superior and would overtake us. I grinded a lot when I was younger to imitate my peers. Only a small portion of that grinding really led to anything, and most of my success today is definitely of the white person "work smarter not harder" mentality.
I didn't know anything about genetics or IQ or HBD or anything. I didn't know much about Goodhearting or what really creates innovation and growth. I came from a working class household that basically assumed hard work = good outcomes and working harder pretty much always made you a better person who deserved more and everyone gets what they deserve more or less.
Chris, you're about the same age as me. I know what your expected the world to be like based on the facts at the time. It didn't happen. After twenty years of new evidence, most of which was devestating for Asia, I updated my priors. This evidence comes at both the statistical level (GDP, birthrates, etc), the personal level (all my fresh of the boat "based" asian friends assimilated to being shitlibs), and then a catastrophe of COVID (watching the way asians behaved during COVID made me realize assimilation is impossible and that electoral changes due to demographic change could have real impacts on my daily life).
I think you get all this "let's stop the rate of immigration but talk nicely about it and not be racist."
I just think it's hard to shut off immigration without discussing WHY. What specific traits do these foreigners have that you don't want impacting the system. Citing record high foreign born % is sort of a way to dodge the question, if people are good to have then more is better and any problems in the short term will reverse in the long term. Are you going to force people to live in a country with a GDP of $2,800 a year where there is shit in the street everywhere just because a statistic has reached a certain level? I don't think that's going to hold up. But if you think that immigration is gong to make us more like the place they come from, that's a good reason.
That's last is the key. Every Indian immigrant makes America a little bit more like India. There are worse countries to resemble. But there are also better. We should have legal preferences to admit immigrants primarily from the better.
We don't have to force people to live in a country with a low GDP but that doesn't translate into allowing them to immigrate to the US.
The fact that more than 70% of the H1B go to a single country is ridiculous. India is not the only country in the world, there are talented people everywhere
India has the 3rd highest muslim population
Muslims and Indians do not get along.. which is why Pakistan was created.. India and Pakistan split in 1947 primarily due to rising religious nationalism, political disagreements over power-sharing.. I have say I looked that up.. and A.I came back w/ half an answer and is rewriting history.. it got that part right but it was NOT BECAUSE OF BRITISH COLONIALISM.. Ok because of that I will just read the rest of the responses I don't have the time to deal/w A.I.. Christopher Rufo is a smart guy. has his own opinions which I don't always agree w/ I do know form my son's experiences work for CVENT and TEK fields he got a long real well w/ the Indians but there is sweat shop mentality.. which pervades INDIA RUN computer shops. which Americans do not. He said that the INDIA indians come in sick,,work long hours and to save up for their four week holiday in INDIA with their families IN INDIA. and while they do assimilate well.. language and culture and free enterprise and mind their own business. the H 1 visas do not help AMERICANS who are software engineers. OUTTA HERE
Good piece, Chris, but be careful in assuming (as so many do) that past waves of immigrants were readily and easily assimilated into American life. The great wave of immigration between 1880-1920 was marked by large amounts of violence, anarchism, and disorder, as the US sought to integrate large numbers of foreigners who were allowed in primarily because they were a cheap labor force--sorry, Emma Lazarus. The period between 1920-1970, in which immigration was greatly restricted by law, economic depression, and war, was also the time when the American people, notwithstandint the many social crises of the era, were probably the most unified they had ever been.The mass migration since then has seen the unraveling of that unity. For all too many of the new immigrants, "assimilation" is a bad word.
We need an immigration moratorium of a generation or more to allow time to assimilate this most recent wave of mass immigration. The survival of the country demands it.
That wave also led to the massive leftward tilt of US politics forever and the death of true American constitutional republicanism with the rise of FDR and new deal politics
I live in a neighborhood in Texas that is highly populated with Indians. I have not necessarily had issues with Indians in the past, and to be honest they aren't the worst neighbors to have however my city has taken in so many of them it is overwhelming. I do agree there is something to the massive wave in such a short time being a big part of the problem. Also they do tend to stick to their cliques and not really socialize with Americans in my experience. We need to turn the spicket off and send off the ones committing H1B fraud.
I own a shared house in Seattle and have had several Indian tech worker housemates over the years. There’s a couple things that I’ve noted, number one is a lack of soft skills. These men from the upper castes are shipped off to boarding schools and then shipped off to Northwestern University or whatever of several other colleges that tend to attract cut-throat Indian students from boarding schools. They don’t have the social skills that I believe our culture requires, and they don’t seem to be acquiring them. I’ve had people come to a house brunch and under the breath I can hear them saying networking networking. Remember, this is networking. They also don’t have the same respect for women that I wish they had. Also, out of their mouths, I hear that working at Amazon, the meetings are just people swearing and screaming at each other. I think that social skills / soft skills are essential to a functioning America. I also think that when we bring in cultures that disrespect women we’re making a mistake. One thing I’ve noticed is that there’s no one onboarding these people that come to college or H1B. There’s no onboarding to America. The first time these people are onboarded is when they have their interview for their green card which of course is the gold standard of what they’re seeking. I can attest to the fact that these men largely have no idea about social graces. Also, I question the degree mill keeping some of these colleges alive. One of the recent housemates has a master's in economics from Northwestern, yet he didn't know what the financialization of America was (the K-shaped economy, so to speak). Oh, boy. I do think, at the top of reasons why we import all these people, is our failed education system. I look forward to that changing so that we can compete, and that's not to discount the shady deals that happen regarding H-1Bs.
A lot of assimilation is behavior, how Americans are expected to treat each other. As immigrants have become a larger share of the middle and upper middle class, the old social norms of behavior has sort of evaporated.
This is the correct take. And we already have a fine mechanism to reduce immigration that's extremely popular: completely cut off illegal immigration and implement mandatory e-verify, the dream of immigration hawks for a generation. Then reform! He H1B program away from being an indentured servant program for big tech to bring an actual color-blind high skill visa for professionals we actually need (much more than tech workers: WE NEED MORE DOCTORS) and you've solved immigration
We should also be importing more H1B immigrants from European countries, Australia, Canada and South Africa. Europe is the root culture of America.
Personal anecdote only. With massive numbers of Indian in-laws working at the top of Silicon Valley, I have never been able to interest a single one in America's founding Anglo philosophy and culture. Madison? Adams? Burke? Locke? Milton? Shakespeare? Chaucer? Anything prior to Mill is just so much obscurantism. "Don't you want to know where America came from," I finally I asked one young man. His answer: "Frankly, I don't care."
I like this article very much. It is, as they used to say, very fair and balanced. When I saw the Indian boys cheering for UTA football, I had a positive reaction; it looked like assimilation to me. But I have worked with dozens of Indian-born Ph.D. engineering students, so I know them, and I am positive about them.
I found this thought interesting: "I believe the best path forward is to slow down the flow of immigration to match our capacity to assimilate newcomers." There is no doubt that we can measure and control the legal immigration rate. But to match that to the rate of assimilation, implies that we can measure the latter rate. I don't think we can and, if not, then that makes this impossible to do. Some groups seem to assimilate easily and other groups seem to resist assimilation. Further, assimilation is a fuzzy concept. We sort of know it when we see it.
I think the best approach is to revamp the immigration system entirely, while keeping our borders closed and secure: north, south, east and west. Then assess what we need in terms of background and professions, and admit people with those skill sets from other nations, including Europe, at reasonably slow rates. We should keep the rate of immigration low for the foreseeable future. We have at least 15,000,000 people who came here unvetted and illegally. We need to deal with them before we admit (legally) any more migrants.
Just a comment- UTA refers to University of Texas Arlington rather than University of Texas at Austin
Well, India has a lot of people in it. And, when you have that many people, there are likely to be more high performers. (Isn't that how it works in high school sports)? Anyway, we take the cream of their crop and I would never apologize for that. But the "chain migration" and "re-uniting families" thing has to end. Because in India, one's "constitutional rights" are secondary to the religious and cultural duties placed on one from birth. And those religious rules are enforced by the State. This is a far cry from our system and its acceptance here would mean the death of our democracy.