Immigrants Do a Great Job at Becoming Americans

Immigration has lots of economic benefits, and few economic costs. Immigrants pay for native-born Americans’ retirement, start companies, and make the U.S. a desirable destination for investment, while not taking away jobs or depressing wages of the native-born. But people care about more than dollars and cents -- culture is important. Immigration skeptics -- including a few on the political left -- often fret that immigrants won’t adapt to American culture. But they shouldn’t worry. The great American assimilation machine continues to work as designed.

First, restrictionists misunderstand the nature of assimilation. Many seem to have an image of newcomers imitating the native-born, conforming perfectly to local traditions and customs. But this has never been the reality. In the 19th and 20th centuries, when religion was the key marker of culture, immigrants to the U.S. rarely converted. Despite heavy discrimination and even violence against Catholics, Catholicism became the plurality religion throughout much of the country. Instead of mass Catholic or Jewish or Orthodox Christian conversion, what happened was that the notion of American identity simply expanded to include all of these denominations.