Immigration Sounds Nice, But Who Deserves The Most Merit By John Carson On Merit

In the editorial Merit Based Immigration Sounds Nice, But Who Deserves the Most Merit, John Carson asserts that the concept of merit based immigration, while justified, has several areas that need clearer guidelines. The author begins by giving unbiased background information on the issue, and why this merit is an arbitrary subject. Moving forward, Carson illustrates how from the founding of the nation, “merit [has been used] to justify inequality,” (Carson). In his passage the author, continuously displays the ways merit can be used in favor of certain groups, and how those in power later choose to extend human rights to. John Carson, believes that since the founding of the nation, “merit is employed as a way of unequal doling out limited resources,” (Carson). Therefore, it is difficult to decide how merit shall be measured in the sense of immigration.

Previously, Carson discussed Thomas Jefferson’s declaration’s of equality — notably ‘all men are created equal.’ However, this argument is weak, due to Jefferson having been a slave owner. The author, uses the President’s line because it, “was balanced against widespread belief that some people, were more talented,” without understanding the context behind the message, (Carson). When Jefferson said his famous quotation, he meant to white, landowning, males; who are exactly the people that had to later extend basic rights to groups who were discriminated against. This lack of research, sticks out to any person with a basic understanding of history, and makes Carson’s argument seem weaker — that some founding fathers were messiahs of