Both the left and right misunderstand America's immigrants. Immigrants are on average more patriotic and more committed to traditional social values than native-born Americans. Which is why we should embrace immigration to rebuild our civic culture. https://www.persuasion.community/p/immigrants-are-far-more-patriotic

The left is much more likely to see America as a systemically sinful place than immigrants are; in polling, most immigrants maintain more pride in America than native-born do, and also perceive less discrimination.

Meanwhile, the right argues that immigration can lead to the breakdown of American culture, but immigrants are often eager to join our pre-existing culture, work hard, and are more likely to have the traditional family structure conservatives value.

Beto O'Rourke told a group of Tennessee-based immigrants that "every single institution and structure" reflects the legacy of Jim Crow. This must be an odd thing to hear for Nigerian-Americans, who are among the highest-earning ethnic groups in our country.

Meanwhile, conservative law professor Amy Wax suggested that we may need a "cultural distance nationalism" that would conclude that "our country will be better off with more whites and fewer non-whites." I'm not sure where Silicon Valley would be without South Asian immigrants.

As @leah_boustan and fellow researchers have shown, second-generation immigrants often have greater upward mobility than native-born Americans. That suggests immigrants are quickly assimilating into the economy, working hard, and getting ahead. https://www.persuasion.community/p/immigrants-are-far-more-patriotic

I am *not* arguing here that there are not economic costs to immigration, which we should consider, or social costs to an insecure border (human trafficking, for instance, is a real problem at the US-Mexico border and ports). But I'm arguing immigration strengthens *our culture.*