Deport the Native-Born for Being Sick, Criminal Moochers; Keep the Immigrants

Immigrants aren't the problem; racist, xenophobic extremists are the problem.

 

Think Progress:

The newest arrivals in America are assimilating faster into the society than previous generations, and their experiences don’t fit into the most common stereotypes leveled against them, according to a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report published this week.

Culling data from the 41 million foreign-born immigrants in the country — a population that includes the 11.3 million undocumented immigrant population — the study authors write in their 400-page report that integration into American society “may make immigrants and their children better off and in a better position to fully contribute to their communities.”

Overall, the immigrants are rapidly assimilating into American society.

 

“They’re integrating as well as, or even faster, than immigrants who came from Europe in the last century,” lead author and Harvard University sociology professor Dr. Mary Waters told ThinkProgress in a phone interview this week. “In that way, I think it should be reassuring to Americans who are often worried that somehow the immigrants are not learning English, are not progressing well, or becoming full Americans. What we find overall — there’s a lot of details and caveats — but overall, the immigrants are rapidly assimilating into American society.”

Water noted that the study was intended to be “factual and independent of politics.” Even so, her study’s findings do repudiate some of the existing myths about the impact that immigrants have on American society, and could challenge some of the recent xenophobic rhetoric pushed by 2016 Republican presidential candidates with anti-immigrant positions.

Here are the main takeaways from the study that help debunk some persistent misconceptions about immigrants:

Immigrants are healthier than native-born Americans

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Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans

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Immigrants are learning English faster than ever

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Read the whole thing.