# Every Immigrant Suddenly Vanishes from the USA... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 3, 2009, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828 "2009-12-03T08:28:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/61 "2009-12-03T21:31:26Z")
You don’t have to go to the countryside to hear that sort of nonsense. Back in 2001, I was working in downtown Pittsburgh when I heard a coworker say, “Well, I think that if you weren’t born in this country, you should get out now.” I looked up from what I was doing, put on my best British accent, and replied, “In that case, it’s going to take me a bit longer to fix your database.” This prompted a round of, “We didn’t mean _you!_” Now, in fairness to my coworker, this was after the events of 9/11 and stress levels were running high. I also think she had no idea of what her statement implied, especially in a city which takes great pride in its immigrant heritage. I also think she’d forgotten there was an immigrant in the room. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/62 "2009-12-03T21:41:02Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > The skilled immigrants would be hard to replace. The low-skilled not so much. Oh, really? Exactly who would you replace them with? ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kearsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/63 "2009-12-03T21:43:56Z")
Zombies!!! ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/64 "2009-12-03T21:47:25Z")
**Immigrant Zombies!** ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/65 "2009-12-03T21:47:48Z")
> [@Kearsen](#): > > Zombies!!! Nope. Wouldn’t work. Brains are not legal tender…yet. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/66 "2009-12-03T22:04:05Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Oh, really? Exactly who would you replace them with? those people who are currently manipulating the welfare system, and the unemployed. I am unemployed, and if a bunch of telecommuters poofed into the firmament, I could get a job because my family has been here since the 1600s on both sides. I am lucky, because mrArus family has been here on his fathers side since the 1600s and his mothers side since the 1800s. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/67 "2009-12-03T22:19:25Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > those people who are currently manipulating the welfare system, and the unemployed. > > I am unemployed, and if a bunch of telecommuters poofed into the firmament, I could get a job because my family has been here since the 1600s on both sides. I am lucky, because mrArus family has been here on his fathers side since the 1600s and his mothers side since the 1800s. Do you really believe there are so many people manipulating the welfare system as to make a dent in the numbers required if all immigrants in the country disappeared? What percentage of the unemployed would you consider the number of welfare manipulators to be? A better question for me probably to ask is what percentage of welfare recipients do you consider to be manipulators of the system? ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/68 "2009-12-03T22:27:16Z")
Customer service is going to be a treat as well once **aruvqan** replaces the low skilled immigrants who **wanted** to work with the presumably no skilled welfare cheats (if there are this whole army out there) whose sole interest is in doing as little work as possible. It’s going to make the DMV seem like a model of efficiency. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/69 "2009-12-03T22:30:02Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I am unemployed, and if a bunch of telecommuters poofed into the firmament, I could get a job because my family has been here since the 1600s on both sides. I am lucky, because mrArus family has been here on his fathers side since the 1600s and his mothers side since the 1800s. We wouldn’t have the same number of available jobs as now after the immigrants vanish, because businesses would lose customers as well as employees. That’s going to hit some industries harder than others, of course. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/70 "2009-12-03T22:41:15Z")
Most of the people in my engineering team at work would disapper. My wife’s parents would disappear. My parents would disappear – and they’ve been in this country for fifty years! ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/71 "2009-12-03T22:47:14Z")
My mom, dad, grandparents, and a huge chunk of my extended family are gone… ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/72 "2009-12-03T22:56:18Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Technically if this happened wouldn’t most everyone in the US disappear and leave just those of American Indian decent left? In which case my husband would be very upset to find his wife gone, being quite a bit Cherokee. At the very least I’d need to find a new doctor. Over the past 20 years I’ve had doctors from India and Australia but I don’t think any of them have been native born. On the up side - I might actually find steady, if low-paying employment. I’m not too proud to do landscaping, lawn mowing, and construction work even if I am an American born white girl. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/73 "2009-12-03T23:31:02Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Technically if this happened wouldn’t most everyone in the US disappear and leave just those of American Indian decent left? The OP said anyone who was not born in the US, so a lot of us would still be around. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_from\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Man\_from\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_from_Mars)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/74 "2009-12-03T23:36:09Z")
California would need a governor, but mostly everyone in the country would be very confused by this unprecedented event. (Also, it would confirm once and for all that Obama was in fact born in America.) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/75 "2009-12-04T00:19:35Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > I might get my actual order at McDonalds because the person who worked there spoke English and wages would rise because there would not be as big a supply of cheap labor. Want the person taking your order at McDonald’s to speak English to you? Come over here! Even when I speak Korean to them, they insist on speaking English to me. I feel sorry for the ohter foreigners here who _don’t_ speak English. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/76 "2009-12-04T00:24:44Z")
Thinking on, given the idea that everyone born in a foreign country just up and vanishes, an international diplomatic shitstorm wouldn’t be the first thing to happen. The first thing would involve quite a few 'planes dropping out of the sky and suddenly driverless motor vehicles causing a bit of a bother. Yer basic Rapture scenario. Then the foreign governments will start asking where their ambassadors, embassy staff, tourists and other citizens are. Once you’ve finally cleaned up the body parts and bits of 'planes, rebuilt whatever the hell they all crashed into and averted war with the rest of the world, that’s when you can start worrying about who’s gonna serve you your breakfast McMuffin. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/77 "2009-12-04T00:46:18Z")
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned this, but in the OPs scenario would non-native born US citizens still be able to enter the country afterwards? Granted people might be less likely to immigrate knowing they could vanish into the aether without warning. Or would every foreigner vanish into thin air after they set foot across the border? What about natural-born citizens who were born abroad to American parents? Would they vanish too? What about people born in places that used to be part of the US, but aren’t now (Panama Canal Zone, Micronesia, Marshall Islands, etc)? Does the UN HQ count as American territory or not? ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/78 "2009-12-04T01:14:03Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Oh, really? Exactly who would you replace them with? Er..the millions of immigrants who want to get into the country but can’t. Sorry but unskilled labour simply won’t be that hard to find. In fact, it may help the black underclass when employers are literally forced to actually employ them rather than ignore them and hire an illegal. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/79 "2009-12-04T01:28:13Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > Er..the millions of immigrants who want to get into the country but can’t. Sorry but unskilled labour simply won’t be that hard to find. What makes you think they’ll want to come anymore? It’s more likely you couldn’t get many of them to come short of kidnapping them. > [@Lochdale](#): > > In fact, it may help the black underclass when employers are literally forced to actually employ them rather than ignore them and hire an illegal. Probably under the same awful conditions and low wages ( even if we have to change the laws to allow it ). Or we’ll just use prison labor instead, or arrest even more of that underclass and _ **then** _ use them as prison labor. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828/80 "2009-12-04T01:58:46Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > I suspect he meant that in the absence of many visible minorities, more subtle differentiated people would begin to bear more of the brunt of discrimination. Obviously, native born visible minorities would still be around, but a chunk of visible minorities would be gone, so red-haired people would no doubt step up to the plate and fill the void in the discrimination industry. Why would there be an absense of many visible minorities? A handful of people from India and other parts of Asia aside, virtually all the minorities I’ve ever met were born here, and many of their families came to the US long before my own did. Less than [13%](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States#Demographics) of people who live in the US weren’t born here, and that encompasses all immigants legal and otherwise. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/every-immigrant-suddenly-vanishes-from-the-usa/519828.md?page=5)