Maine Lobster & Florida Corn Have Needs
Do you enjoy eating Maine lobster?
If you do, the next one you bite into could be harvested by someone from Congo or Venezuela. It seems that native born “Mainers” are not anxious to work in such a hard or dangerous industry. With the oldest population in the U.S., Maine will need many new immigrants or the state’s population will shrink and there won’t be enough bodies to make the state and its industries run.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2042, all U.S. population growth will be because of immigration. As Americans age, there are less able-bodied people in our work force. That means fewer people will be paying social security and income taxes. Sustained immigration will be the only way that those in their 40s and 50s now will be able to retire.
One of our local Florida farmers told me that they are not planting all that they could because there is no one to work in the fields. Our state’s crackdown on migrants has had the effect of thousands of them leaving. Our state’s farms are not like those in other parts of the country that have grain crops. Our crops are fruits and vegetables which are much more labor intensive to take care of and harvest.
I am sure the same can be said for the construction industry. As Americans age and our children become better educated, hard manual labor is not something they aspire to doing. Europe is showing us what the future looks like as their population is aging faster than ours.
It is just untrue that migrants commit more crime than native born Americans. If anything, they commit less. However, that doesn’t mean what is happening at the borders is acceptable. There needs to be an expanded immigration policy to provide a more orderly way for the millions of people we need to come and become workers and ultimately new Americans.
In the history of the world, there has always been migration from the poor to the rich. Armies couldn’t stop it. Just ask the Romans. Even with such insurmountable obstacles as the ocean, people still risk everything to land on the shores of the wealthier countries.
America has been accepting immigrants since peoples came across the land bridge from Asia to become “Native Americans.” Everyone in Europe is descended from ancestors in Africa which was the origin of the human species. All Americans now are descendants of immigrants.
If you like eating an ear of Florida corn or a lobster, the only way that will continue is with those from somewhere else coming here to work and live. We need to make immigration an obtainable goal without resorting to what we have now which is a free-for-all. The American dream is not one of finality but unlimited opportunity.
