The Real Immigration Crisis: Not Individuals, but Numbers Reshaping Culture, By Chris Knight (Florida)

President Trump's second-term border crackdown, slashing illegal crossings by 40% in early 2025 per CBP data, quelled the chaos of the Biden era. Yet, as Matt Boose argues in his August 20, 2025, Chronicles piece, globalists on both sides now push a seductive narrative: deport only the "bad" immigrants, violent criminals like MS-13, while embracing the "good" ones who fuel cheap labour and economic growth for their profits. This framing, Boose warns, is a trap, and the real issue isn't individual immigrants' behaviour but the sheer volume of newcomers fundamentally altering America's culture, economy, and social fabric, and the West too. From identity theft to neighbourhood transformation, the long-term impacts of mass immigration, legal and illegal, reveal a nation straining under numbers it can't absorb, threatening the very identity that defines it.

Boose's central thesis is that focusing on individual immigrants' character, whether they're law-abiding workers or gang members, misses the point. The average immigrant, like Harjinder Singh, the Indian truck driver who caused a fatal crash in Florida due to language barriers, isn't a sociopath, but still imposes costs. Singh, licensed, yet unable to read English traffic signs, exemplifies how cultural disconnects, multiplied across millions, erode safety and cohesion. A 2024 DHS report notes 70 illegal workers with stolen identities at an Omaha meatpacking plant, harming Americans not through violence but through systemic fraud. These aren't isolated incidents: Pew Research (2025) estimates 11 million unauthorised immigrants, plus 40 million foreign-born, make up 15.4% of the U.S. population, near historic highs.

The "good immigrant" myth assumes assimilation is automatic, but numbers overwhelm integration. CUNY research (2022) shows immigrants enrich culture, tacos outsell ketchup, Chinese restaurants outnumber fast-food chains, but also reshape demographics, with non-Hispanic whites dropping from 83% in 1970 to 62% today. This shift, driven by post-1965 immigration waves (Hart-Cellar Act), isn't just culinary; it's electoral; with immigrant-origin voters flipping both parties' coalitions. Boose argues that even well-meaning immigrants, by their collective presence, alter neighbourhoods, schools, and job markets, often clashing with native interests.

The cultural impact of mass immigration isn't about individual malice, but scale. In cities like Washington, D.C., and New York, Boose notes, illegal immigrants on mopeds disrupt traffic, a daily irritation for residents. A 2025 Wall Street Journal report describes ICE raids targeting these workers, delivery drivers, construction workers, vendors, as "disruptive," yet locals quietly support Trump's crackdown. This reflects a broader trend: mass immigration changes the "character and feel" of neighbourhoods. Multi-generational immigrant households, common among Latin American and Asian migrants, strain housing markets, with Zillow (2024) reporting a 20% rise in multi-family homes in immigrant-heavy areas, pricing out young Americans.

Education systems buckle under the weight. In California, 3.7 million children of immigrants strain schools, per Migration Policy Institute (2023), with higher per-student costs for non-English speakers. A 2024 EdWeek study found 30% of teachers in urban schools spend half their time on language support, not core subjects. This mirrors Germany's crisis, where Die Welt (2025) reported 98% migrant schools failing to teach German, producing a generation unprepared for professional life. In the U.S., this creates a cultural divide: native students lose educational focus, while immigrant children, despite effort, often lag, with 25% of second-generation Hispanics dropping out of high school, per NCES (2023).

Pro-immigration advocates, like Global Citizen (2018), claim immigrants boost economies through entrepreneurship and taxes. A 2011 Mercatus Center study found immigrants start businesses at 1.5 times the rate of natives, and CBO (2024) estimates a $7.8 trillion GDP boost from 2021-2026 immigration surges. But Boose counters that this benefits corporate elites, not the middle class. Penn Wharton (2016) notes low-skill immigrants strain local budgets for education and healthcare, with native taxpayers bearing the cost. Generation Z faces job competition from H-1B visa holders in tech (1 million issued in 2023) and low-wage workers in trades, with BLS (2024) reporting a 5% wage stagnation for entry-level jobs.

Long-term, the economic picture darkens. IMF (2022) argues immigration offsets aging populations, with 80% of Europe's population growth from 2000-2018 tied to migrants. But NBER (2017) shows that while historic immigration (1850-1920) raised incomes 20% in high-immigrant counties by 2000, modern inflows cluster in low-skill sectors, limiting innovation. Cultural fragmentation also hurts productivity: a 2024 AEA study found immigration can reduce social cohesion, lowering support for redistribution and increasing anti-immigrant sentiment.

The deepest impact is cultural. Boose argues that Third World immigrants, seeing America as an "ATM machine," often disregard its norms. A 2021 Geographical study by Alex Mesoudi warns that high migration without acculturation, 50% or more of a population, erases distinct traditions. The U.S. isn't there yet, but areas like Miami (70% foreign-born) and Los Angeles (40%) show shifts, with Spanish dominating public spaces, per Census Bureau (2023). This isn't integration but replacement, as PMC (2005) notes higher mental illness rates among migrants struggling with cultural loss and alienation.

Historical fears of "Germanisation" in 1750s Pennsylvania or Irish Catholic "threats" in the 19th century proved overblown, as immigrants assimilated. But today's scale, 53.3 million immigrants in January 2025, per Pew, and cultural distance, with 20% of recent arrivals from South America, strain the melting pot. SIEPR (2021) finds modern immigrants, especially from Asia and Latin America, are more skilled than past waves, but clustering in enclaves slows assimilation, unlike earlier Europeans.

Boose's core point is sovereignty: a nation must prioritise its citizens. Mass immigration, even by "good" individuals, reshapes culture, strains resources, and sidelines natives. Trump's deportations, targeting 1 million in 2025 per ICE, are a start, but the foreign-born share (15.4%) remains near historic highs. Critics like The Wall Street Journal frame enforcement as cruel, but Boose sees it as survival. If numbers continue unchecked, America risks becoming a mosaic of enclaves, not a unified nation. CBO (2024) projects 8.7 million more immigrants by 2026 if trends hold, further tilting the cultural balance.

The solution isn't vilifying individuals but setting limits. IMF (2022) suggests controlled immigration to balance demographics, but without cultural integration, it's a recipe for fragmentation. Policies must prioritise language acquisition, civic education, and caps on immigration inflows, going back to pre-1965 figures. Otherwise, America's identity, forged over centuries, risks dissolving not through malice but through numbers, as is occurring right across the West.

https://chroniclesmagazine.org/web/the-myth-of-the-good-immigrant/