How Immigrants Became Democrats
One of my all-time favorite political cartoons is called “How the Middle Became the Right.” Have you seen it before?
How the Middle Became the Right
Though hard leftists hate this cartoon in a hundred different ways, almost everyone else sees the kernel of truth. Two kernels, really:
Kernel #1: Worry about upsetting the left with a stray heresy is widespread in the U.S. The right worries. Moderates worry. Fellow leftists worry!
Kernel #2: When the left purges its own, the right often expresses support for whoever was purged. Sometimes the support is merely symbolic, but prominent leftists often discover a whole new non-leftist customer base after their “friends” get rid of them. See Bari Weiss or Josh Katz or Glenn Greenwald.
It saddens me, then, that right-wing hostility to immigration remains strong. If conservatives will give purged leftists the benefit of the doubt, why not foreigners who relocate for a better life?
The convenient story, naturally, is that the right opposes immigration because immigrants are so Democratic.
Is this consistent with the data? Sure. In Open Borders, published in 2019, I estimated that Democrats’ edge with immigrants is almost 30 percentage-points.
Still, this raises a deeper question: Why do immigrants so reliably support the left? All the main immigrant groups - whether Latin American, East Asian, South Asian, or Middle Eastern - are socially conservative. Some of these groups - most notably East and South Asians - are affluent. Yet even Indian-Americans, exemplars of social conservatism and economic success - have a 4:1 Democratic/Republican ratio.
If people who ought to be on your side aren’t, you really ought to wonder why. So courtesy of Bet On It artist @sengsavane, let me offer the following explanatory cartoon, which I humbly term, “How Immigrants Became Democrats.”
How Immigrants Became Democrats
If you’re right-wing, I know you’ll be tempted to reject this cartoon in a hundred different ways. But does it, too, not possess a kernel of truth?
Suppose you were a recent apolitical immigrant. You would have to be oblivious not to notice that Democrats sound a lot happier than Republicans to have you here. If a political party doesn’t even want you in their country, you don’t need to know much more to deem them your enemies.
The best reply is probably, “Alas, we’re stuck in a vicious cycle. Immigrants are Democrats because the right dislikes them. The right dislikes immigrants because they’re Democrats.” Plausible enough. The best way to break out of this vicious cycle, though, is to make the first move. Swallow your pride, extend the hand of friendship, and see what happens. And if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again. That is leadership. That is vision.
In The Return of the King, Elrond has a grim conversation with Aragorn:
ELROND: You ride to war but not to victory… You're outnumbered, Aragorn. You need more men.
ARAGORN: There are none.
ELROND: There are those who… dwell in the mountain.
ARAGORN: Murderers! Traitors! You would call upon them to fight? They believe in nothing! They answer to no one.
ELROND: They will answer to the King of Gondor!
My point: If you’re resisting the fanatics from “How the Center Became the Right,” you really ought to be looking for new friends wherever you can find them. Assuming the worst of others really is a self-fulfilling prophesy. If conservatives can offer a warm welcome to outcast left-wing intellectuals, why not extend the same hospitality to the millions of apolitical non-intellectuals who want to build a life here? Extending the hand of friendship isn’t just common decency; it is a strategy for long-run victory.
As an immigrant from India myself, this is only part of the story. The other part is that there are certain uniquely American values that are repulsive to most non-Americans (especially those from non-developed non-Western countries) which are guarded primarily by the Republican party.
Some of these are:
1. Gun rights
2. Free speech absolutism (many other countries have exceptions for hate speech)
3. Opposition to ANY abortion
4. Individualism, or "lifting by bootstraps" approach, as expressed in opposition to government healthcare
5. Overall Christian worldview which seeps into things like supporting creationism
Many Indian immigrants are against at least one of the above points.
Indian conservative values are very different:
1. Family centred rather than individual centred
2. Religious but not Christian
3. Safety prioritized over risk taking
4. Conformist ("keep your head down and study")
In general, I don't feel that there is a natural connection to the Republican party at all. Trying to court Indian immigrants at least might not be effective. And according to you, Indians are closest to the Republicans!
I've always wondered why in Canada the immigrants (400k per year) mostly come from conservative leaning countries, but vote overwhelmingly NDP + Liberal
Especially because our conservative party doesn't really have the same right-wing hostility/rhetoric that some Republicans have in the USA, like, if you were drawing that same cartoon, the Canadian conservative party wouldn't be pushing the immigrants to the other parties, I don't think. The immigrants would just be jumping away from the conservative party, into the open arms of the Liberals + NDP.
The most plausible explanation I can come up with is that immigrants to Canada prefer the Liberals + NDP because they promise more handouts