Twitter Debate of the Week: Immigration
Matt Yglesias' Slate piece on immigration reform helped initiate a debate between @reihan, @m_clem and @charlesjkenny on Wednesday, June 20th, 2012. Our recap below.
America Needs Much Bigger, Bolder Immigration Reform-for Low-Skilled Workers, Not Just Supergeniuses-To Boost the EconomyLast week, the Obama administration reignited the immigration debate with a modest effort to accomplish some of the goals of the DREAM le...- Michael Clemen's piece for the Center for Global Development on workers from developing countries taking the jobs of Americans (Feb. 28, 2012):
" Do Farm Workers from Developing Countries Take Jobs from Americans? " Global Development: Views from the CenterI spent last Friday in rural North Carolina, talking with American farmers who employ farmworkers from developing countries. I wanted to ...
@reihan @mattyglesias 1. Tail of global Gini is <$/day --matters more 2. National Gini not determined by migration <<1% pop/yr.- Explanation of the GINI Project:
Growing Inequalities' ImpactsAims The GINI Project studies the economic and educational drivers and the social, cultural and political impacts of increasing inequalit...
@mattyglesias Big developments since then. The visa exists and is now being used. And good for this country, for the reasons you give.- @reihan @charlesjkenny Typically, if they do not immigrate, they are much poorer and their children much less skilled.
@charlesjkenny Less-skilled workers in US have seen their labor market position deteriorate. Migrants subjectively experience place premium- @charlesjkenny but they instantly join ranks of the poorest in the new country. Their children, in turn, face a serious skill deficit
- @reihan migrants *objectively* experience place premium. Impact on low skilled US workers approx zero --see businessweek.com/magazine/how-t…
How to Be a Patriot: Hire an Illegal Immigrant - BusinessWeekLaws against illegal immigration make little economic or moral sense. So why punish the brave citizens who break them? Mexican women at t...- @charlesjkenny relative to the children of native-born parents, and this gap tends to persist. While I'm sympathetic to notion that
- @charlesjkenny global Gini is more morally significant, I don't think you're giving due regard to dynamics within affluent societies.
- @reihan @charlesjkenny Deterioration of low-skill position has led to huge decrease in fraction who are low-skill (dropout rates way down)
- @m_clem @charlesjkenny My sense is that Michael is not a national egalitarian but rather a global prioritarian. That's commendable.
- Prioritarianism: is a view within ethics and political philosophy that holds that the goodness of an outcome is a function of overall well-being across all individuals with extra weight given to worse-off individuals. (For more information on prioritarianism, see Nils Holtug article for UPenn Law Journal below)
- @m_clem @charlesjkenny to migration policy, e.g., prioritizing less-skilled migrants from highly indebted poor countries over less-skilled
- "If we’re going to accept a large but finite number of less-skilled immigrants, it seems far more coherent to select them on humanitarian grounds, e.g., from highly-indebted poor countries with poor growth prospects, rather than on grounds of geographical proximity." - Reihan Salam, "Bryan Caplan on Immigration," Jan. 27, 2012
Bryan Caplan on ImmigrationReihan Salam writes on NRO: Bryan Caplan has published a characteristically provocative and insightful essay on the case for restricting ...
