Op-ed: The Cultural Consequences of Record Immigration

The years 1880 and 1920 bookend a famously high period of immigration to the United States. The era’s “Great Wave” was so large that it remade cities, sparked social and political upheavals, and challenged the nation’s self-identity. With the foreign-born population peaking at 14.8% in 1890 and then at 14.7% in 1910, the scale of immigration was unprecedented.

Due to decades of mass immigration, both legal and illegal, culminating in the surge of 2021-2024 under former President Joe Biden, the foreign-born share of the U.S. population stands at 15.8% as of January. It’s the highest share ever recorded in a government survey.

Ever since mass immigration began anew in the late 20th century, advocates have pointed to the “Great Wave” to insist we could handle it. After all, the foreign-born share, even by 2010, was still below the “Great Wave” peak. “We’ve been here before,” they would say.

It’s no longer true. We have not been here before. Modern immigration is testing our nation’s absorptive capacities to an unprecedented degree, and there are several reasons to be pessimistic about the outcome.

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[Read the rest at the Washington Examiner]