via redditor 808140:

..The sort of person that has the courage and fortitude to leave the country of their birth to pursue a better life, to lift themselves up by their bootstraps out of unimaginable poverty, to do whatever it takes to make sure their children have a better life than they did — these people are not cut from the same cloth as 99% of the rest of the world. This is why the United States, a country built on the backs of immigrants, came to dominate the world. And it is why the close-our-borders xenophobia that now permeates our society is so incredibly damaging to our continuing dominance.

When you meet an African immigrant in the US, you are not meeting a typical African. When you meet a Chinese immigrant in the US, you are not meeting a typical Chinese person. Hell, even when you meet a European immigrant in the US, you aren’t meeting a typical European. You are meeting the sort of person that makes his own future instead of living his life by the cards he was dealt. If the only interaction you’ve ever had with Africans is with African immigrants in the United States, you will come away with the impression that there is no way we poor mortals can possibly compete with them; they are smart, motivated, driven, sociable, and well above average. The same is true for Chinese immigrants, and Indian immigrants, and Arab immigrants — the more difficult it is for them to get here, the more likely they are to be exceptional.

Hell, even the single Mexican mother without a formal education who swims across the Rio Grande in search of a better life has more courage and more strength of will in her being than 99% of any non-immigrant you will ever meet. It takes tremendous force of character to uproot yourself, to make your life in a culture not your own, speaking a language not your own, not just for a year or two or five, but for the rest of your life.

Don’t underestimate immigrants. Even the ones from developed countries that have fewer hoops to jump through to get here still have to be willing to leave their families and their culture behind. It’s not easy. They deserve your respect, and we should try our best to get as many of these people as possible to come here. Given the chance, they will make our country great, as they always have.

This is pretty epic. I’ve never thought immigration that way. It really takes a lot of chutzpah to do something like move to a completely foreign country. I’m a pretty big chicken too though.

Updates might become scant shortly. Says Corey to himself. I’m definitely A) moving and B) going to NJ or getting a job at a local newspaper. If I get the job I won’t be able to go to Jersey. So we’ll see.