Reply #97: I doubt that there is any evidence that would satisfy you.

[pampango]

"I'd like to see some evidence that the new arrivals were good, or will be good, for the people who are already here." The history of massive immigration to the US is a part of the history of the growth of an economy that produced a middle class standard of living that, for a while, was the envy of the world.

Did all of the immigration cause the economic progress? I certainly am not a historian or social scientist and am not able to make that connection. What I can say is that the flow of immigrants did, at least, not prevent, and may have helped produce, our prolonged economic growth.

Of course, even if one could prove that immigrants contributed positively to the development of our modern economy, that would not mean that they were good "for the people who are already here" at that time. It is possible that they depressed wages for that era's workers. If both are true (negative impact of the workers of the era, but a positive factor in the historical development of our economy), the question for our modern time becomes, "Which is more important to me? Current pain or long term gain?).