The long-term trends reveal that our air and water are getting cleaner rather than dirtier, and our supplies of natural resources are becoming more available rather than exhausted, contrary to common belief. Immigration increases the technical knowledge which speeds these benign trends. Immigrants increase the flexibility of the economy. Newcomers are unusually mobile both geographically and occupationally. Hence they mitigate the tight labor markets that the U. S. is beginning to experience.
Immigration reduces the uncuttable social costs of the elderly.
More and more of the U. S. population is retired, with a smaller proportion of adults in the labor force. New immigrants typically are just entering the prime of their work lives and tax-paying years. Immigration is the only feasible way to lighten the Social Security burden of the aging U. S. population. It also reduces the federal deficit, which would not exist if people still lived the short lives, and had the large number of children, that they did early in the century. High on Congress's agenda in September is the Morrison immigration bill.