We have approximately 20 million (at least) illegal alien residents from Latin America. Europe threw its doors open to North African and Middle Eastern immigrants.
If you look at Europe's population growth rate, you will understand why they are immigrant friendly now... again, there are other matters at play here, and it is not as simple as it may appear at first glance.
Many of the illegal immigrants that we have in the U.S. are more than happy to do the jobs that WE dont want to do (there have been many academic studies that have proven that crime is a very small portion of the immigration issue, most people just want to be able to provide for their families). Would you or anyone in your family be willing to go pick lettuce for 12 hours a day, for a labor rate at or below minimum wage? I don't think i would, nor would anyone in my family... Conversely, would you be willing to pay 20$ for a head of lettuce, it would cost at WHOLE lot more if farmers had to pay labor rates that Americans would want to do the job. The cost you pay at the store, in most cases is a direct function of labor rates... Popular media has demonized immigrants of all kinds... Do you remember last summer when GA and Alabama "got tough on immigration"... Do you remember the fruit and vegetables in the farmers fields rotted last summer because no American wanted to go pick the food for the wage that the immigrants were willing to do the job? 9 times out of 10, the south american/mexican immigrant is not taking a job "away" from an american, they are willing to do a job that an american is not willing to do....
This topic is actually quite interesting from a cultural/sociological point of view... Today in America, we don't want immigrants, but we also don't want to do the jobs for as little compensation as the immigrants are willing to do them, but... We still want all of our products to be super cheap...
The rational player will see the fallacy in this though process....
