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Catch-All/Student Discussion Questions

an aspect of immigration not much discussed in the media

Majorities or very large pluralities in many Western countries want reduced or no new immigration to their countries, and generally only small percentages say the rates should be higher than they now are.  The US seems, by these data at least, to be something of an outlier (29% saying fewer or no immigration, a near majority–44%–saying keep levels the same, and 24% saying more, that last figure higher than any European country except Spain).

One wonders though how much the typical American knows about what the current rate is–as Borjas reports, since the mid-’60s, it’s been consistently high in historical perspective, with no indication that it will be curtailed significantly any time soon.  I think it’d be likely that those figures in the US might shift more into line with those of many other Western countries if survey respondents were given objective data on the historical magnitude of current immigration and some of the other details discussed by Borjas.

Another fact in these data that you would spend a lot of time listening to public discussion of this issue without hearing:  nearly 80% of Mexicans think that outmigration from their country is a moderately or very big problem.

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