| Immigration, a population issue, see article below
picture Planning and population issues on my blog Density planning can make for an ideal, walk able city in Vancouver, BC Green Manhattan Computer industry can pave the way toward smaller footprints, but better living All my blog entries on smaller, but better lesson of computers Bohemian lifestyles could be a saving grace. Gay environmentalism? Alternative lifestyles can reduce global warming Growing the economy to keep up Mount Rainier buried in cars Some Bellingham planning issues Affordable housing These and more entries under my blog label population |
 Copied from some old magazine. I forgot which one. Immigration is basically a population issue
in my thinking There's some hypocrisy on the
right from many Republican members of Congress and so forth.
People who worry that the US is being overrun with illegal immigrants
coming from places like Mexico. Well, Mexico has had a high birth
rate and I've heard that the US is kind of a "safety release valve" for
Mexico's growing population. Where are those Republicans when it
comes to promoting birth control and family planning overseas? It
took President Obama to lift a gag order against some of the family
planning aid; a policy instituted largely by Republicans known as the
"Mexico City Policy."
At the same time, there's also some hypocrisy on the traditional left. A more welcoming policy toward immigration can be instituted at the national level, but that means GROWTH at the local level as well. Growth in our cities and towns. Growth in our local neighborhoods as well. Many people who proclaim liberal ideals will often oppose growth in their local environments. Of course not all conservatives, or liberals think alike, but there are contradictions in thinking among many in each political camp. What can be done about the immigration issue? There are many proposals for immigration reform. The system, as we know it now is clogged to the breaking point. Many come into this country illegally, but the legal means to immigrate to USA is slow and cumbersome. Still, no amount of streamlining of forms at INS, or rearranging of office procedures will solve the main problem. The main problem being, more people want to come to USA each year than the legal quota set by Congress. That's basically the crux of the issue. One way to address the immigration issue is to have Congress set a much higher quota for number of legal immigrants allowed into the USA each year. People who are currently here illegally could apply for these legal immigrant slots. It could help relieve the backlog and legitimatize the status of folks already here. Many of those folks are working and so forth. Problem is, we're talking population again. Basically the number set by Congress partially reflects how fast the American people and our legislative process want our country to grow. At the same time, we could, conceivably, accommodate more people. It depends, in part, on planning. How we plan for our growing population in each locality. Then we're talking footprint on the environment, zoning, transportation and so forth. Sometimes increased population density even has benefits. Urban life, arts and culture, walk able neighborhoods. It often comes back to planning issues. How many people we accommodate comfortably depends, to a large extent, on how we live. One can say, maybe we can accommodate more people as long as they aren't all driving cars and looking for parking. Another idea is the guest worker program. That's something even former President Bush promoted. That would allow people to come here for work and then go back to their home country part of the year. Not a bad idea, either, but I haven't written much about that one. The big issue, in my mind, is not just immigration. It's population. This page links to many of my blog posts about population and planning issues. |