Cracks in the melting pot

The immigrants who arrived between 1901 and 1910 constituted 10 percent of the population, whereas between 1981 and 1990 immigrants constituted 3 percent of the population. At the current 300 million native population in the US, the illegal immigrant migration for the ten most recent years would have had to been 21 million (i.e. 7%) to just equal the numbers from the turn of the century. So perhaps "comparative trickle" is not the appropriate choice of words.

I'll stand by the choice or words, Eric, because right now we are talking about legalizing 12 million to 20 million overnight. Nothing close to that has ever happened before. Extending the measurement over more years just to drive down the percentage is technically correct but pointless.

Joe,

It was you who drew the comparison to the immigration rate from the turn of the century - I simply pointed out an accurate comparison shows no difference between the two figures. Perhaps (given that we are simply going to equalize the numbers) we are actually correcting a paperwork oversight that occurred over the past decade.

The effect is the same. They are HERE already and can not be deported (except in some people's imaginary world). Let the paperwork catch up with them already.

Eric, I was referring to assimilation (or not) as citizens, not simply arrival - although I guess I can see how you would read it that way.

The reason this is significant is the "benefits of citizenship" constitute so much nowadays in terms of government largesse and "rights" whereas in the pre-1925 era it did not. Granting these overnight to such a large group is very different type of scenario.

There are other reasons to wonder whether assimilation will occur in the present instance and that will be a topic for future posts.

Why can't they be deported?

Operation Wetback deported 80,000 in a few months, and another 500,000 or so left voluntarily.

and how does the audience of the miss universe pageant fit in?

It could be considered a reflection of the Mexican populace's antipathy for the U.S. Like the chants of "Osama" at that soccer game and a number of other things that have happened.

This article does a good job talking about the phenomena (a number of years ago):

http://www.faraway-soclose.org/usa/americans.html

UPDATE: Here are some better links -

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4236314/

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0324/p01s03-woam.html

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:rHhobQHHTEsJ:www.geocities.com/pageantmania2000a/1993Dayanara.html+kenya+summer+moore+booed&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Gee, I don't suppose Mexicans antipathy toeard us could have anything to do with the antipathy of people like you toward Mexico. I suppose you think they should welcome us with flowers the way the Iraqis were supposed to.

You'll notice their antipathy goes back a number of years and is quite well developed, which proves my point exactly.

Glad we're finally on the same page.