Generation Gap Over Immigration. Forget sex, drugs and rock-n-roll immigration is a new generational

[pampango]

fault line.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/us/18divide.html

Cathleen McCarthy, a senior at the University of Arizona, says immigration is the rare, radioactive topic that sparks arguments with her liberal mother and her grandmother. “Many older Americans feel threatened by the change that immigration presents,” Ms. McCarthy said. “Young people today have simply been exposed to a more accepting worldview.”

In the wake of the new Arizona law allowing the police to detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally, young people are largely displaying vehement opposition — leading protests on Monday at Senator John McCain’s offices in Tucson, and at the game here between the Florida Marlins and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Meanwhile, baby boomers, despite a youth of “live and let live,” are siding with older Americans and supporting the Arizona law.

This emerging divide has appeared in a handful of surveys taken since the measure was signed into law, including a New York Times/CBS News poll this month that found that Americans 45 and older were more likely than the young to say the Arizona law was “about right” (as opposed to “going too far” or “not far enough”). Boomers were also more likely to say that “no newcomers” should be allowed to enter the country while more young people favored a “welcome all” approach.

And the causes are partly linked to experience. Demographically, younger and older Americans grew up in vastly different worlds. Those born after the civil rights era lived in a country of high rates of legal and illegal immigration. In their neighborhoods and schools, the presence of immigrants was as hard to miss as a Starbucks today.

In contrast, baby boomers and older Americans — even those who fought for integration — came of age in one of the most homogenous moments in the country’s history. From 1860 through 1920, 13 percent to 15 percent of the country was foreign born — a rate similar to today’s, when immigrants make up about 12.5 percent of the country. But in 1970, only 4.7 percent of the country was foreign born, and most of those immigrants were older Europeans, often unnoticed by the boomer generation born from 1946 to 1964.

The generation gap is especially pronounced in formerly fast-growing states like Arizona and Florida, where retirees and new immigrants have flocked — one group for sun, the other for work. In a new report based on census figures titled “The State of Metropolitan America,” Mr. Frey found that Arizona has the largest “cultural generation gap,” as he calls it, between older Americans who are largely white (83 percent in Arizona’s case) and children under 18 who are increasingly members of minorities (57 percent in Arizona’s case).

[krabigirl]

1. Wow..scary that so many people think "no newcomers" should be allowed into the US.

This includes LEGAL immigrants.

Being not yet 40, I guess I fall into the "younger" people divide on this one. Likely, so do many "older" people. And I do know many young people that are very into this law. It's about mindset, not age.

[Jennicut]

2. Not surprised. Younger people are generally more accepting

of certain changes. Baby boomers just got older.

[pampango]

3. I think Boomers thought we were different and would not think "old" like our parents

and grandparents (who seemed to us to always be relatively conservative) did. Maybe every generation thinks it's more "accepting" than the one before. Boomers certainly thought so back in the day. It will be interesting to see the changes that come about as the Boomers gradually lose their grip on political power and the younger generation takes over.

Hey, you'll be older one day too. Just see if younger folks aren't more "accepting" than you when that day comes. :)

[Jennicut]

4. I am already old...I am 34 now!

LOL...18 year olds think I am old. But seriously, Gex Xers are so cynical in general I don't know if we as a generation ever thought we could change anything. I think everyone turns more reactive as they get older, it is a natural process.

[Donnachaidh]

6. yeah -- f*ck those boomers who marched with MLK and fought for Roe vs Wade

they're such rigid bastards..... :eyes: Broadbrush much?

karma dear. tick tick tick :rofl:

[Flaneur]

8. Do you have a problem with the survey methodology?

Your posts seem immune to reasoned discourse. All emotion.

[pampango]

9. The OP concerns a poll that shows that older people are less supportive of immigration

than are younger folks. Younger people have grown up in a different world with much more exposure to immigrants than I had in the 60's and 70's. We had plenty of other big issues to deal with, but immigration wasn't one of them.

I don't see that as a broad brush attack on anyone. When I was young, I had a different outlook from my parents' generation, so I'm not surprised that younger folks now will see things differently from me.

[Donnachaidh]

11. and it's total bullshit jumped on by a generation that likes to lay blame

on anyone but themselves.

It's trying to push *stereotype* as the norm. It's quackery that's popular, because it takes away from the *actual* immigration problem. It's an easy way out -- point a finger at a group, label *them* as *the problem* - and then do nothing about fixing the REAL problem of immigration.

the same old "It's NOT *my* fault, so I don't have to fix it* response from people who claim to not stereotype people like the republicans do. :eyes:

[Donnachaidh]

5. another round of *let's blame the older Americans* on the problem, to deflect from

the FACT that there is NO real solution for the problem yet.

Nice ageist piece-- got more? Seems some here suck that swill down with a spoon. :sarcasm:

[Flaneur]

10. There is a solution: comprehensive immigration reform.

Frothing anti-immigrant nitwits shot it down last time it was tried.

[supernova]

7. I'm a late boomer who doesn't tow the line

on immigration.

I want them to be able to have healthcare, education, and jobs and a pathway to citizenship. It's no good to hide in the shadows and it doesn't do anyone any good to remain there, either.

[greencharlie]

12. I watched Gran Torino... I understand. :D nt

[ieoeja]

13. Since young people have a harder time finding work, this gives the lie to "but it's about jobs" meme

If it was really about protecting American jobs, then the youngsters should be the one most angry about illegal immigration.

One of the beauties of living in Chicago is that the anti-immigration crowd find it impossible to rationalize it as not being racist. Given that we have the second largest Polish-speaking population in the world (only Warsaw has more), as well as a massive Irish population, and that a hefty percentage of them are here illegally and nobody has complained about that for decades....