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Since World War II, labor migration has flowed increasingly from poorer to richer countries and from younger to older countries. Refugees, the least desirable migrants, move mainly from one poor country to another. By 2005, just over 1 percent of the populations of less developed countries was foreign-born, compared to nearly 10 percent of the populations of more developed countries, which have declining fertility, aging work forces, and economies that generate significant demand for both immigrant professionals and (often unauthorized) low-wage laborers.

Moreover, historical ties between countries underlie contemporary migrations. They’re rooted in colonialism, war and military occupation, labor recruitment, and economic exchange. Once migration footholds are formed, family networks expand, remittances ($268 billion in 2006) link communities across national borders, and all of this turns migration into a self-sustaining process—while producing predictable nativist reactions.

A common misconception asserts that immigrants’ Babel of tongues poses a threat to English, and that Hispanics in particular are less likely to speak English than earlier generations of European immigrants.

The facts show otherwise. Even in greater Los Angeles, where more than 6 million people of Mexican ancestry live, the second generation prefers English, and Spanish is dead by the third. The switch to English—in proficiency, preference, and use—occurs even more rapidly among Asian-origin groups. What is threatened is the survival of those immigrant languages.

Another misconception is that immigrants, especially “illegal aliens,” bring crime, drugs, and health problems to this country. Again the evidence is overwhelmingly to the contrary, as numerous studies (see page 28) have found. Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes or to go to prison than the nativeborn. Teenage immigrants are less likely than native-born adolescents to engage in delinquency, violence, and alcohol and drug abuse.

Immigrants are also healthier than natives, that is, until Americanization becomes hazardous to their health. As immigrants become more accultured over time and generation, their rates of obesity, mortality, and mental and physical health problems actually rise.

Yet, popular myth overrules systematic evidence. Contemporary nativism, in the current political climate, rails against immigration without caring to understand the history and complexity of the flows, the forces that propel it, the networks that sustain it, or the demographic dynamics that will shape the American and the global futures. In so doing it exemplifies the definition of a delusion: “a false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence.”

But what is the future of a delusion?

For those interested in further reading on the facts about immigration, Rubén compiled a list of resources for us. Go to the next page to view these.