US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that “xenophobia” from China to Japan and India is hobbling their growth, as he argued that migration has been good for the US economy.
“One of the reasons why our economy’s growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” Biden said.
“Why is China stalling so badly economically, why is Japan having trouble, why is Russia, why is India, because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants. Immigrants are what makes us strong,” he further said.
The remarks comes as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast last month that each country would see its growth decelerate in 2024 in comparison to 2023. This could range from 0.9% in highly developed Japan to 6.8% in India while the United States would grow at 2.7%, slightly faster than its 2.5% in 2023.
According to several polls, migration has been a major concern among many US voters ahead of November’s presidential election.
