Lodge noted that failure to restrict the immigrant of unskilled individuals in the United States would affect the wages and the living standards of the American labors. Lodge arguments is that unskilled labors is a deadly enemy of the economic life and the living standard of the American wage earner. The concern is that the unskilled immigrants will readily accept any form of work provided with minimal payment as long as they earn.
Lodge argument failed to note that the immigrants would promote the consumer economy. It is true that the negative effect of unskilled immigrants is competition for available jobs but they would positively impact consumption because they would buy American consumer goods. Increased consumption would mean that more jobs would be created in the labor market for Americans. In addition to promoting consumer economy in the U.S, it would also be discriminative of the immigrants looking for asylum of refuge in the U.S.
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Senator Lodge argued that unrestricted immigration would threaten the quality of the citizenship of the American people. Lodge argument is that U.S should only allow the English speaking people into the U.S because they related to the American and understood the course on which America was built on. The citizenship quality of the people would be compromised if Immigrants from everywhere across the world were accepted to the U.S. All Lodge mention is that the originality of the American people would be compromised by the visitors.
Senator Lodge fails to understand that America was formed by immigrants from all over the world. Allowing immigrants from other parts of the world would not lower the quality of citizenship. The white people themselves were immigrants into the U.S and the only people who have the right to claim that the quality of their citizenship was affected are the Native Indian communities who owned most of North America.
In his speech The Restriction of the Immigration, Lodge argues that the immigration of the illiterate people should be restricted. In his argument, he supports the use of literacy tests to all the incoming immigrants to determine if they qualify to be in the United States and according to him the less skilled and those with low education should be banned from immigrating to the U.S since they are alien to the American people’s body.
In his argument, however, he did not identify other ways that the literacy of the immigrants could be determined. He assumes that literacy tests are good for restricting the immigrants to the United States while in real sense the immigrants are capable of practicing enough for them to pass the tests which could mean that there would still be increased in the number of immigrants in the U.S who could endanger the living standards of the Americans through lowering the American wages.
Response to the Views of Lodge
As an engaged citizen, I would support his idea of restricting the immigrants who are a threat to the economy and social life of the Americans especially those that provide cheap labor leading to a reduction in the wages hence lowering the living standards of the American people but I would require a more proof of literacy such as provision of certified academic and experience papers other than the literacy tests.
I also think that his argument that the citizenship and the race of the American people are in danger due to allowing of other people whose race is different and the inheritances, thoughts, beliefs, and traditions are also different is somehow exaggerated because despite the immigrants posing some danger to the American people, they have contributed greatly to the economy of United States through offering some skills and some of them are a part of the history and mission of America.
