Switzerland just set a great example for America on immigration — we need to have a national conversation
Swiss voters went to the polls Sunday and resoundingly rejected capping the country’s rapidly growing population at 10 million by limiting immigration.
Congratulations to the Swiss for staging a national conversation over immigration — something the United States urgently needs to do.
The Swiss have seen their population soar by more than 25% since 2000. The newcomers are for the most part workers from neighboring European countries, not migrants from the Middle East or Africa.
Even so, the right-leaning Swiss People’s Party pushed for immigration restrictions, arguing that such rapid population growth strains housing, social programs and Swiss identity.
Opponents of the measure, who dubbed it a “Swiss Brexit,” warned stopping the free flow of Europeans into Switzerland would threaten its special relationship with the EU, which buys over half of all Swiss exports.
They also argued Switzerland has grown wealthy over many decades, despite a lack of natural resources, by attracting foreign innovators — including the immigrants who launched giant Swiss companies like Nestle, Swatch and Novartis.
It’s time for Americans to have a national conversation on immigration, as the Swiss just did.
We don’t have to come to the same conclusion: The Swiss wanted to make sure their laws served the best interests of Switzerland; our laws should serve the United States.
But the discussion needs to get to the heart of the matter.
Sadly, our politics has been fixated on one polarizing, fringe issue — ICE and deportations — rather than on the real question: Who should we invite into the United States?
The current law, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, must be replaced with immigration standards that boost our economy and avoid dependence on public handouts.
A staggering 47% of US households headed by a noncitizen collect welfare benefits such as food assistance or Medicaid, per the Center for Immigration Studies. Ouch.
That’s almost double the dependence rate (28%) for households headed by someone born in America.
Americans are fed up with taking in newcomers who need to mooch. It’s not sustainable.
Part of the blame goes to our crazy immigration laws, which give preference to newcomers with family ties — a child or other relative already here — instead of job skills, education, English-speaking ability or interest in American civic life.
Congress needs to scrap those laws, enacted in 1965, and give the nation a merit immigration system that will boost the economy and spare taxpayers.
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That’s what smart countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore are doing.
Another part of the blame for the scandalous dependence of immigrants on welfare is the Biden open-border policy.
The 2021-’24 border surge brought in migrants significantly less educated and capable of supporting themselves than those who came before.
The number of newcomers with no education beyond high school more than doubled from 2019 to 2023, CIS reports.
The immigrants using welfare are not lazy; most are working. In fact, they’re more likely to be employed that US-born adults, but their minimal schooling dooms them to earn little and become a permanent dependent class.
Adult male immigrants now earn 52% of what US-born male workers earn, down from 62% in 2019, because of the Biden surge of unskilled, minimally educated migrants.
Ultimately that will force down wages for low-skilled Americans, too.
The Biden administration’s surge was nothing short of treasonous. Like napalming our towns and cities, leaving them with a growing dependent class and public debt.
The border is now closed. President Donald Trump showed it could be done, without any major immigration legislation, despite the Democrats’ pleas that “comprehensive immigration reform” was needed first.
A new Harvard/Harris poll indicates this is the opportune time to fix our immigration mess.
The public regards it as the most pressing issue after affordability (No. 1) and the economy (No. 2).
It far outstrips concerns for health care, the US-Iran conflict, the environment or education.
So let’s get to it. Political polarization seems to be softening.
A slim majority of Democrats (52%) now say their party is “against open borders.”
Republicans, who risk losing control of Congress after the midterm elections, should seize the moment to divert the national conversation from the fringe controversy over ICE to merit-immigration reform.
Who we let in will determine how we prosper.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.
