How Will You Save Small Midwestern Towns without Mass Immigration?

Thoughtful post on a hot topic -> How Will You Save Small Midwestern Towns without Mass Immigration?

We’re in the middle of a cycle that has been happening for 250+ years in the US. Even the awful rhetoric is nothing new. But hopefully, we’ll speed run the cycle better than we did in the past.

Lay collects both quantitative evidence (surveys, which she compares to surveys from the surrounding towns that didn’t get many immigrants), and qualitative evidence (interviews with local residents). She finds the same old American story: initial wariness and even some hostility to the newcomers, followed by broad acceptance and tolerance as locals get to know the newcomers. The Contact Hypothesis wins again, and the American mosaic becomes more colorful, etc. etc.

So if this research is right, why have we seen an upsurge in anti-immigration attitudes in America since 2021? There are two clear answers here. First, people get temporarily upset when there’s a flood of new immigrants, as there was from 2021 to 2023. Second, a lot of people are upset about the immigration they read about in the news, rather than the immigration happening in their own cities and neighborhoods. It’s a lot easier to fear people when you don’t meet them.

Sounds like the same old story. MAGA types get enraged about small-town immigration that they read about or see on TV. Then in the actual towns where the immigration is happening, the immigrants are working hard, revitalizing the town’s economy, generally being good neighbors, and winning over the long-standing residents. Again and again, America is functional and healthy at the local level, while national politicians foment hate from out of town.