Frequent commenter Debbo recently shared with me this Minneapolis Star-Tribune article on retiring Minnesota Chamber of Commerce official Bill Blazar, who says immigrants are vital to sustaining rural Midwestern economic development:
Forty percent of the Fortune 500 companies in Minnesota were either started by immigrants or their children. A 2014 tally found more than 16,000 immigrants employed in businesses of their own making. Six percent of all Minnesota businesses are immigrant-owned, employing more than 60,000 Minnesotans. Nearly 1 out of 4 workers in Minnesota’s medical-equipment and computer industries in 2014 were foreign-born.
Immigrants often need taxpayer support initially, “but once they get settled, they are an asset this state needs badly,” Blazar said. They are often bilingual. They are familiar with countries in which a middle class is emerging — places that are potential new markets for Minnesota products.
Yet “all too often, Minnesotans’ view of the role of immigrants in the economy is ‘They put the roof on my house and they take care of my parents in the nursing home.’ ”
Those who say that aren’t seeing the whole picture. “There isn’t a company that I visit that doesn’t have immigrant workers.” A 2014 analysis found that foreign-born Minnesotans are slightly more likely to have a bachelor’s or graduate degree than are native-born people [Lori Sturdevant, “Retiring Chamber Leader Blazar Has a Message He Hopes Has Staying Power,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 2018.09.28].
Local Trumpists monging fear of foreigners stand in the way of bringing new workers, new ideas, and new money to rural America.
Bill, the Star Tribune, and Cory left out the word “legal”. It makes a very big difference.
Legal doesn’t make a bit of difference to the mangled apricot when it comes to deporting them.
Settling of the Midwest and Great Plains has always been accomplished by chain migration. Little of it was legal. It all came by expropriating the lands of various tribes. There were few laws to prevent people from entering the US, and the treaties were not enforced. My mother’s family got to northwestern Iowa through chain migration after the tribes had been corralled onto reservations.
Here’s the conundrum: there were no laws to prevent the second and third generations of those first immigrants from leaving, and not enough to keep them there. When immigration declined due to laws passed, population in the rural areas of the Midwest declined and towns lost economic viability. There was no one to replace the people who left. If you want a thriving rural economy, encourage any kind of immigration. If you want continued decline, choked off immigration and make immigrants feel unwelcome.
Jason focuses on the term “illegal” when it comes to devaluing immigrants who seek safety or a better life in the USA and become contributors to local communties. That focus deserves exploration on why it is so very important to Jason.
First, as has been shown many times on this blog, the immigrants Jason generally disparages as illegal have done one of two things. They either have crossed the border without required papers, a non-violent immigration law misdemeanor, or they have overstayed a Visa, non-compliance with an administrative rule, but not a crime.
SD law provides that the non-violent failure to pay use tax on your internet purchases constitutes a class 1 misdemeanor.
https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/Codified_Laws/DisplayStatute.aspx?Type=Statute&Statute=10-46-38
“Class 1 misdemeanors are the most serious, with potential punishments of up to one year imprisonment and up to $2,000 in fines. . . ”
https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/south-dakota-misdemeanor-crimes-class-and-sentences.h
What makes Jason, and like thinkers, simply ignore people in SD who have committed, often repeatedly, the non-violent use tax class 1 misdemeanor, but constantly denigrate immigrants who have committed a single non-violent misdemeanor, and denigrate those immigrants who have committed no crime whatsoever by overstaying their Visas.
While the choice to constantly denigrate and remind others of the immigrants’ non-violent transgressions might or might not be intentional discrimination, it sure looks a lot like discrimination based on race, or national origin, rather than any particular belief in the sanctity of the law.
Since sanctity for the law obviously fails as a truthful rationale, is there some other non-discriminatory factor that Jason and like thinkers can identify to rationalize their repetitive attacks on these non-violent immigrants other than race or national origin?
Boom! Very well done BCB. Logical, concise, clear, factual.
Immigrants have historically been very, very good for the USA, and they continue to be so. This piece of immigrant information surprised me:
“foreign-born Minnesotans are slightly more likely to have a bachelor’s or graduate degree than are native-born people.”
Minnesota is among the most educated in the USA, but even so, our immigrants are even better educated. Wow.
They open floods of businesses, the start up queens and kings. It’s really wonderful to see formerly moribund streets brought to life.
BTW, it’s instructive to note that the racists don’t mention the enormous economic benefits brought by immigration. They just try to nitpick at the brown people. Immigrants are literally saving small Minnesota towns and businesses.
In the children concentration camps, their fate is now sealed. They will be “adopted” into “approved families” Kind of like the Indian Child Welfare Act that was recently struck down. This is more or less the same as it pertains to Native Americans south of the border.
“”Federal officials insist they are reuniting families and will continue to do so. But an Associated Press investigation drawing on hundreds of court documents, immigration records and interviews in the U.S. and Central America identified holes in the system that allow state court judges to grant custody of migrant children to American families—without notifying their parents.”
Jerry, that’s heinous and inhumane. Kidnapping children and shopping them off. Monstrous. Pootiepublicans are subhuman.
I find it a privilege to meet immigrants from all over this world, to learn their culture and their food (yummy). I’ve met so many different people from different countries living in MN that I never would have if I had stayed in SD.
Hey South Dakotans, immigrants are just like you and I – they want to be able to provide for their families and to be accepted. They come here for a better life – just like our forefathers did.
My daughter is a better human being for having gone to school and become friends with children from all over the world.
Debbo, immigrants have saved towns like Huron. You won’t ever hear republicans admit it.
Notice how Jason rushes to switch the ground of the discussion.
Immigrants are vital to our economic well-being. When all Republicans want to do is talk about the the smaller negative side of immigration, they distract us from the overwhelming positives to immigration. Blazar has tried to challenge that harmful propaganda in Minnesota. I’m happy to fight that same harmful propaganda here in South Dakota.
Cory, why don’t you do an article on the impact of immigrants on South Dakota? I would like to know how much immigrants contribute to South Dakota. I understand the government flooded Minnesota with immigrants without the residents knowing but need to convince everyone “how it is good” how about our state?
Not true at all OS. We asked for immigrants. You just make stuff up. You “understand” 100% wrong. Just can’t stand it that immigrants are a great asset to the USA. Bless your hard little racist heart. 😊
Jenny, you’re absolutely right about Huron. I grew up 50 miles from there and lived in Huron from about 1982-87. It would be an empty husk without all the Latinx and others. Huron is very happy to have them, like Worthington.
I’m having total shoulder replacement tomorrow so probably won’t comment for a couple days. If I do comment, especially tomorrow, and it sounds weird or goofy, like OS for example, just remember I’m stoned on pain meds. 😁