(05-13-2017, 05:46 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: Actually, the antiimmigrant sentiment is economic, not social.
Only partially. The main thrust is cultural. This is particularly salient in Europe where the immigrants are from a very different culture and the host nations have less experience in assimilating immigrants. But its true here too. Trump crafted his campaign to emphasize immigrants as bad people, the dregs of their societies that their home countries were foisting on us, or even as terrorist agents bent on our destruction. In contrast, Trump's anti-trade message was purely economic. His campaign rallies showed it was his immigrant message and not his trade message that resonated. The campaign chant was Build the Wall, not Shut China Out. Furthermore, the wall would have zero effect on the net inflow of illegal immigrants, which were no longer coming from the South, but instead people from the Old World who were overstaying their visas. Trump never addressed the main source of illegal immigrant inflow, nor mentioned the only effective policy that would stop them. He would have had to do this if his immigrant message was about economics as opposed to "others" mixing in with us and diluting traditional American culture. If the message is economic, it would be the immigrants who were closest to us in culture and work habits (Europeans, White Cubans, East Asians and South Asians) who pose the greatest economic threat, as opposed to Islamic, Black or Latino immigrants who have the greatest perceived cultural threat to "core" Americans.
