Mine Intent

For the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved.

Wherefore, the things which are pleasing unto the world I do not write, but the things which are pleasing unto God and unto those who are not of the world.

-Nephi

Immigration

Immigration

I had a conversation about immigration not too long ago with a few of my roommates, this is what we decided:

Lately I've been taking the bus to the mall, which has opened my eyes to the lower class of Provo, and all the unseemly things that BYU students are normally not exposed to in their day to day living. I've also had opportunities to talk to the bus drivers, who have seen it all. One time I was talking to a truck driver gone bus driver, who had literally driven through all of the lower 48 states. Talking to her confirmed to me again, there is a lot of space in this country.

Even driving down to St. George confirms it, there is a lot of space in Utah.

If there is all this space, why not just open up the borders and let all these huddled masses yearning to breath free be free? Let them come in and be productive and enhance this great country!

This is why not:

Everyone wants the benefits of being free. But not everyone who wants benefits wants to work for them. In that same group of huddled masses are those who want to be able to come in and be productive and enhance this great country! But there are also those who want something for nothing, they are tired of working hard to survive and want to live off of the wealth that others have generated. Providing for these people brings no return, they literally burn money on their lusts. Imagine taking a certain portion of your paycheck every month and burning it on the stove.

Naturally, I don't blame those who are in government positions who have realized this phenomena and therefore set up barriers to entrance. I think the words of Emma Lazarus poem could have been changed to: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, but only send those that are willing to work and be productive, we don't want your leeches."

Another problem with letting in the huddled masses is that unless otherwise coaxed, they will stay huddled in masses. This results in ghettoes. It's logical to stay together, but at the same time it then creates barriers and disunity with the locals. If huddled masses were allowed to come in large groups it could be quite unsettling when all of a sudden local legislature is taken over by new comers. In summary: immigrants need to integrate. Otherwise they aren't becoming part of the country, they are becoming they're own country in the middle of some else's.

If these two criteria are met: the immigrants are productive, and the immigrants are integrating. Let them come! The more the merrier! From what I've seen, we have plenty of room!