by digby
This article from The Atlantic should broaden the dialog a bit about Trump and undocumented immigrants. It’s not just about the delicious taco bowl they serve in Trump tower that he loves so much. It’s also about the curry and the pho and the Kung Pao chicken:
Turns out that, since 2000, unauthorized immigration from Asia has grown at rates much faster than from Mexico and Central America. That’s according to a new report by the Migration Policy Institute. So Trump will need to amend his ideas for “securing our nation’s borders.”
At 6 million, Mexicans still represent the majority of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the country. But the percentage of those arriving has slowed since the recession. During that time, however, Asian unauthorized immigration has increased considerably. From 2000 to 2013, it increased 202 percent, according to the report.
A curious reason for this, says Marc Rosenblum, deputy director of U.S. immigration policy at MPI, and coauthor of the study, is that income in some Asian countries has risen. “That can be counterintuitive,” he says, “since you often think of immigration is something that low-income people do.”
In the 1990s, the unauthorized population in America doubled from 3.5 to 7 million. It reached its apogee in 2007 at 12.2 million. Then the recession hit.
As demand for low-skilled, low-wage workers waned, so did the number of those who came to the U.S. and traditionally filled those roles. In greater numbers than any other group, the unauthorized Mexican immigrant population has dropped after the recession.
“I think it’s safe to say that the unauthorized immigrant Mexican population is unlikely to return to the high growth rate that it did in the 80s and 90s,” says Rosenblum.
In that same time, the number of African unauthorized immigrants doubled. Similarly, the number of unauthorized immigrants from Asia tripled.
What happened in that time, Rosenblum says, is that as the economies thrived in places such as China, South Korea, and India, people there could now afford to migrate to the U.S.—both legally and illegally.
For example, in 1990, there were an estimated 28,000 unauthorized immigrants from India in the U.S. There’s now more than 284,000. Those numbers mirror the rising share of legal Indian immigrants coming to the U.S., and also America’s growing Indian-American population.
The Asian countries with the largest growth are India (306 percent), South Korea (249 percent), and China (148 percent) .
In fact, if stretched back to 1990, India’s unauthorized U.S. immigration growth far outpaces any other country’s, reaching 914 percent.
Asians now represent about a third of the foreign-born population in America—equal with the Mexican foreign-born population. They also represent 14 percent of the unauthorized population. That number, by the author’s own projections, will grow in the coming decade.
Looks like Trump is going to have to build a wall around the whole country — even in the oceans. I’m sure he can do it. He’s a master builder, dontcha know. He can build anything. It’ll be great.
Clearly, Trump’s “anti-illegal” immigrant campaign is based on bigotry against Latinos. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. But keep in mind that he routinely bashes China with equal fervor so it’s a short hop to demonizing Asian immigrants as well.
And recall that we had some hints of how this could go earlier in the primary campaign when the whole question of “anchor babies” came up. And it was none other than that nice moderate Jebbers who went there first:
It all started when the former Florida governor visited McAllen, Texas, located near the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday and defended his use of the term “anchor baby” to describe the children born on U.S. soil to parents who came into the country illegally. The phrase is considered offensive by many Latinos.
On Monday, Bush argued that he’s been “immersed in the immigrant experience” personally — his wife is from Mexico — and said it’s “ludicrous” for Democrats to say he was using the word in a derogatory fashion.
Further attempting to clarify his comments, the Republican presidential contender said he was actually talking about immigrants other than those who cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
“What I was talking about was the specific case of fraud being committed where there’s organized efforts and, frankly, it’s more related to Asian people coming into our country, having children in that organized efforts taking advantage of a noble concept which is birthright citizenship,” he said. “I support the 14th amendment.”
Trump is still focused on bashing Mexicans and Muslims depending on the day of the week. But his Asia-bashing will likely lead in that direction as well. Why wouldn’t it?
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