How did all those Haitians get to the southern border?

[Alan]

I wonder how those numbers compare to previous eras.

Good question. I've read that the busiest year during the Ellis Island era was 1907 when just over one million immigrants were processed. I think we're currently taking that amount on an annual basis, at least over the past decade or so.

Did we run out of jobs for people when Ellis island was operating at it’s peak?

I would think not since the number of jobs in any country is not static and it seems to me that more people will create more jobs, I guess the question is whether job creation can/will equal new arrivals.

Were the immigrants that came through Ellis island good for the country or a burden? And is there reason to believe that current immigrants would be more or less of a burden than those that came through Ellis island?

I suppose historically a little of both in the short term and probably leaning to the positive side over time. But I think the burden level is now higher since social safety networks funded by the public were practically non-existent during the Ellis Island days but are now a staple, depended upon by an ever increasing percentage of current citizens before even taking immigrants into account. I doubt that situation is sustainable in the long run.

[Jane v2.0]

From what I've seen, no wave of immigrants to this country, historically, has been a liability. Unless you're Pat Buchanan, and see anyone not from Western Europe as some kind of invader. I guess that's a popular theme among some. "Send me your eager, your healthy, your Norwegians..." It probably wouldn't be that hard to modify the Statue of Liberty.

[ApatheticNoMore]

By the by that I think immigration may become an *inevitable* thing (the world is just in so much chaos, climate chaos very much included), but that's different than thinking it's nothing but a good thing. Yea we can't even house people already in the U.S., and infrastucture doesn't even meet current population.

The job thing though: can't we just allow working people in this country to have a break and have decent job search and maybe job conditions for what the first time since 2008 at least. For how many years upon years (the fallout of 2008 was a long one, unemployment stayed high for years) has it been an employers market, and if for like 6 months it's an employees market, a very short period of time, 6 months ago we scarcely had a vaccine, it's suddenly the end of the world.

[GeorgeParker]

@Alan: You should also include in your calculation the high death rate among all poor people, especially immigrants crowded into big city tenement slums. Prior to antibiotics and vaccines, death was rampant in those crowded conditions with often poor ventilation, poor sanitation, and poor nutrition. (not that conditions were all that much better where the immigrants came from) And a lot of the employment immigrants were forced to accept was very dangerous -- sweatshops like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, digging subway tunnels, building railroads or canals with no work-safety regulations, operating dangerous machines with no safety guards on them.... But just plain getting sick or injured and dying from infection was probably the biggest killer iirc. Life was cheap then, especially if you were poor.

As long as rich factory owners and industrialists were able to obtain enough raw materials to increase production and enough places to sell what they produced at a good price, they were happy to have a steady supply of new immigrants coming in to replace the ones who died off or somehow managed to escape by going out west where people were scarce.

[ApatheticNoMore]

@Alan: You should also include in your calculation the high death rate among all poor people, especially immigrants crowded into big city tenement slums. Prior to antibiotics and vaccines, death was rampant in those crowded conditions with often poor ventilation, poor sanitation, and poor nutrition. (not that conditions were all that much better where the immigrants came from)

probably much of what happened less than a year ago with covid, who can doubt it hit hard poor, immigrants, living in extremely crowded conditions. it did not only hit them, I mean it was an pandemic, but disproportionately.

[Alan]

@Alan: You should also include in your calculation the high death rate among all poor people...

I think I was ruminating rather than calculating and I'm pretty well acquainted with the perils of the poor, the one thing my family consistently excelled at from the early 1700's through the end of the 1900's was remaining poor against all odds.

[GeorgeParker]

"Send me your eager, your healthy, your Norwegians..." It probably wouldn't be that hard to modify the Statue of Liberty.

That poem was written in 1883 during a campaign to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. It wasn't cast in bronze and attached to the statue's pedestal until 1903. And BTW the name of the statue is "Liberty Enlightening the World" not "Liberty Inviting All The Unwanted People In The World To Come Here". The original concept of the statue was that the shining example of what liberty had created in America and France would enlighten the rest of the world and cause other nations to throw off their oppressive royalty in favor of freedom and democracy.

[GeorgeParker]

I think I was ruminating rather than calculating...

I was just throwing another log on the fire.

[iris lilies]

I wonder how those numbers compare to previous eras. Did we run out of jobs for people when Ellis island was operating at it’s peak? Were the immigrants that came through Ellis island good for the country or a burden? And is there reason to believe that current immigrants would be more or less of a burden than those that came through Ellis island?

What were the EBT allotments, TANF payments, Section 8 voucher requirements, etc back then? I forget what the taxpayers were funding back in the day.

[iris lilies]

From what I've seen, no wave of immigrants to this country, historically, has been a liability. Unless you're Pat Buchanan, and see anyone not from Western Europe as some kind of invader. I guess that's a popular theme among some. "Send me your eager, your healthy, your Norwegians..." It probably wouldn't be that hard to modify the Statue of Liberty.

Will you be welcoming unlimited immigrant Covid patients into the overcrowded hospitals in your state?