We want to stop it because somehow we believe that people are changing America instead of America changing people. We could have had this debate in the early 1900s. In fact. my guess is if we went back somewhere. we would find we did have the debate. because in the years between 1901 and 1910. we had. on average. 10.4 immigrants come to America each year for every 1.000 Americans. From 1911 to 1920. we had 5.7 immigrants per year per 1.000 Americans. from 1921 to 1930. we had 3.5. Today. even though the number of immigrants in 1995 was just 2.8 per 1.000 Americans. some would have us believe we are just being flooded. we are being overrun by these people who become doctors and engineers and pay all these taxes. and I could mention win Nobel Prizes. I could read the list of foreignborn Americans who have won the Nobel Prize. except the list is too long. I could read down the list of people who have become historic names in the scientific history of our country. names that we now think about and the world thinks about as American names. including Ronald Coase. who won the Nobel Prize in 1991 in economics. and Franco Modigliani. who won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1985. As a graduate student. I had no idea that they were foreign born. The point is. the list goes on and on. full of people who have come here. who have caught fire. who have unleashed creative genius that has made America the greatest country in the world. and they may have brought their mothers. Great. May it never end. Could America be America without immigrants? I know there are people who say. "Well. theyre taking our jobs." I want to make Just one point about that. Go out in Washington today. go to a shoe store where they are repairing shoes. go to a laundry. go into a restaurant. in the kitchen of a restaurant. go any place in America where people are getting their hands dirty. and do you know what they are going to discover?
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immigrants foreign born