America Is Stupidly Shutting Out Immigrants. Isn't It?(International Edition; People Flows)(Essay)

Byline: Katie Baker

Ever since 9/11, the general perception has been that America is over-building walls--both real and regulatory--to keep out immigrants. Horror stories about Indian engineers getting strip-searched as suspected terrorists provoked business leaders like Bill Gates to argue that the U.S. is scaring away talent, to its own disadvantage. Now the storyline has shifted, to focus on immigrants who are voluntarily leaving or avoiding America because the global financial crisis has tarnished its reputation as a land of growth and opportunity.

But the numbers tell a different story. According to a recent study by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), total migration flows have been steady throughout the current decade, despite tighter background checks and interior crackdowns following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and despite the slowdown of the economy starting in 2007. Every year since 2000, the U.S. has attracted more than 1 million legal immigrants, including more than 1.1 million last year, and another half million illegal migrants. The walls are not as high as we thought.

American immigration may not be as crudely self-defeating as critics suggest. The MPI examination of census data looks at where immigrants come from and found that migration from Europe is down slightly since 2000 and that migration from Latin America has slowed since 2007. But the population hailing from Asia, the continent ...