PhDs Take 800 Words to Say Absolutely Nothing About Immigration



Most Americans are concerned about the current state of higher education. It’s no secret that mainstream U.S. universities have morphed from hubs for objective scholarly inquiry into radical left indoctrination centers. And students transgress against the anti-American open borders orthodoxy at their own peril. However, a recent op-ed in the Washington Post, “Like it or Not, Immigrant Children Are Our Future,” reveals just how far off the rails twenty-first century academics have drifted.

The essay was authored by Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, the Dean of the Graduate School of Education at UCLA and Carola Suárez-Orozco, the co-director of the Institute for Immigration, Globalization and Education at UCLA. Both hold PhDs. And both have had lengthy careers in academia. Yet, even working as co-authors, neither seems to be able to say anything relevant about immigration.

They begin with this jargon-laden nonsense: “An entirely new cartography of immigration is unfolding in real time.” If you’re scratching your head, don’t beat yourself up. I have almost as many degrees as the Suárez-Orozcos – and two decades of practical experience dealing with immigration issues – and I have no idea what that means either.

And, over the course of roughly 800 words, it doesn’t become any clearer. According to the Professors Suárez-Orozcos, “there are a cluster of impediments to integration that are particular to the current era of globalization.” But fear not, “scholars, educators and practitioners are coming together in a global ‘network of networks,’ endeavoring to move the needle in supporting immigrant youth.”

So…what’s the actual conundrum being addressed? It appears to be some vague riff on the standard far-left narrative: Developing-world immigrants are somehow more motivated than the current populations of the nations they seek to enter, and therefore essential to the continued success of those countries. Citizens of receiving nations who believe in borders and sovereignty are racist, rather than merely patriotic or practical. It is malice that blinds the citizens of Western democracies to all of the benefits of “diversity” that come with unchecked mass migration. We need immigrants to “fix” Judeo-Christian culture and save it from itself. Ergo, any limits on immigration are “racist” or “xenophobic” rather than reasonable or practical.

That narrative is absurd on its face. And the lack of coherence behind the argument is exactly why it must be expressed using highfalutin gobbledygook, instead of clear, analytical prose. Immigration is a complex issue that implicates everything from sovereignty to charity and all that lies between. It cannot be reduced to absurd ad hominem simplicities like “racism” or “xenophobia,” even when those over-simplifications are couched in complicated-sounding academic lingo.

Thus, we live in a world where average citizens regularly make substantive, useful observations about immigration policy in 280-character tweets but two PhDs drone on for 800 plus words and succeed only in saying absolutely nothing about the very same issues.

About Author

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Matthew J. O’Brien joined the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in 2016. Matt is responsible for managing FAIR’s research activities. He also writes content for FAIR’s website and publications. Over the past twenty years he has held a wide variety of positions focusing on immigration issues, both in government and in the private sector. Immediately prior to joining FAIR Matt served as the Chief of the National Security Division (NSD) within the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), where he was responsible for formulating and implementing procedures to protect the legal immigration system from terrorists, foreign intelligence operatives, and other national security threats. He has also held positions as the Chief of the FDNS Policy and Program Development Unit, as the Chief of the FDNS EB-5 Division, as Assistant Chief Counsel with U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, as a Senior Advisor to the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, and as a District Adjudications Officer with the legacy Immigration & Naturalization Service. In addition, Matt has extensive experience as a private bar attorney. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in French from the Johns Hopkins University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Maine School of Law.

3 Comments

  1. avatar

    The essay was authored by Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, the Dean of the Graduate School of Education at UCLA and Carola Suárez-Orozco, the co-director of the Institute for Immigration, Globalization and Education at UCLA.

    That alone tells you that these two are useless parasites that would at best be washing dishes for a career if it hadn’t been for this huge influx of third world uneducable tax consumers who have required whole sections of government and academia to hide their drain on the system.

    • avatar

      Absolutely. Hipnotic chanting aimed at our youth in an attempt to clarify their negative thought patterns towards immigration reform as correct because in their minds an educated professional has stated it so.
      I live in a city full of hypnotized people. It makes me want to snap my fingers and wake them up. They have no idea what is really happening.

  2. avatar

    We need immigrants to “fix” our culture??? How about they fix the cultures they come from first? These two nitwits need to explain why people from so many other countries are beating down our doors to get in, with their tales of woe about violence, poverty and corruption they are fleeing. One would love to see the explanation how Sweden and Germany have been improved by the hordes of lawless angry “migrants” they have let in and who live in neighborhoods that the police will not enter except as a group.

    South Americans worship Simon Bolivar. But that’s only now. He gave up his fortune to lead the fight for independence against Spain. In the end he was backstabbed by his so-called allies and died penniless on his way to exile. He wondered in his final years whether those societies were really ready for democracy. Given the record since, that was a good question.

    Story in the Los Angeles Times about 87 consecutive days of smog alerts, the worst stretch in decades. Officials are reportedly “looking for answers”. Of course, the most obvious one, stop importing more people from foreign countries, the main driver of their population growth, is not to be discussed. Just like the Colorado River, source of water for much of the southwest, is lower and lower because of a years long drought, and it is possible that whole areas will be cut off from water in a couple years. But let’s put the blinders on and pretend that immigration-driven population growth doesn’t make these problems more difficult to solve. Brain dead morons.