Does the present status of immigration amplify undesirable social fragmentation while dissolving the cultural glue of America? Fox News Channel colleagues Tucker Carlson and Juan Williams discussed the question on Monday.
Immigration over recent decades has wrought unprecedented changes to America’s demographics, said Carlson, pointing to a Monday-published study via the Center for Immigration Studies indicating that America is home to 43.7 million immigrants, amounting to 13.5% of the population:
What’s the effect on the population [already in America]? You can’t switch out your population to this degree and not have some kind of social volatility. Why does the average person not get to weigh in on this very often?
Williams described “populism” as “tribal” while pointing to exceptional immigrants such as Google co-founder Sergey Brin as evidence of aggregate national economic benefits from the present status of immigration.
Carlson cast contemporary immigration policies as fracturing America on “basic questions” regarding American identity:
We’re at a moment, and every survey shows it, of total division within our society. People have less in common with each other than they’ve ever had. We’re asking basic questions, like what ties us all together? Why are we all in this together? Do you not see any correlation between massive immigration since 1965 and where we are now? The country is much less united, much less willing to agree on basic questions like, is the Bill of Rights worth continuing? That’s not related to immigration? Of course it is.
Watch the exchange below.
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