Immigration: an invalid excuse for U.S. childhood poverty
You will often hear conservatives say, "We can't have a school system like Finland's because we have immigrants," or "We can't fix childhood poverty, because we have so many immigrants," or "the Scandinavian countries can have such a high standard of living because they don't have immigrants."
Complete nonsense.
According to a UN report from 2015, the percentage of immigrants in various populations is:
The U.S. 14.3%
Sweden also 14.3%
Denmark 9.0%
Norway 13.1%
Finland 5.09%
Iceland 10.46%
The stereotype of the Nordic countries being homogeneous lands of blue-eyed blonds is way out of date. And as you would know if you had been there recently, most of the immigrants in Scandinavia are from the Middle East, Africa, or Southeast Asia.
Furthermore, Canada has a whopping 20% immigrant population and a lower child poverty rate than we do. Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland also have a higher percentage of immigrants in their populations than the U.S. does. Germany, the UK, and France are all over 10%. They also have lower child poverty rates, although the UK is catching up since the Conservatives took over.
You have to use a different excuse for our child poverty rate, especially since so many of the nation's poor children are natural born American citizens from Appalachia, industrial towns deserted by corporate America, Indian reservations, African-American ghettos, and other pockets of poverty.
Oh, by the way, isn't it just a little bit racist to blame our social problems on immigrants, most of whom are hard-working, law-abiding individuals?
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