In the first chapter of the book We Wanted Workers, George J. Borjas describes how integration has increased in the United States in the past few decades. Furthermore, this increase can be seen in both terms of trading goods with other countries as well as with the amount of people that immigrated to the United States. An interesting point made by Borjas is that immigration is like a trade in some ways, as countries import the labor required to manufacture products. A couple of decades ago, immigrants in some countries had the role of simply going to work, for instance, in Germany. Until the 1990s, immigrants from Turkey often went to Germany to work and were not expected to be a part of the culture or community of the country. Borjas argues that this view of immigrantion is misleading and does not give the full view of the economic impact that immigrants could have. Despite this information, Borjas explains how immigrants are in fact people who need to make choices, such as whether or not to assimilate themselves into the new country. However, there are both positives and negatives that come with assimilation. Ultimately, while immigrantion can help some Americans economically, it can also hurt them. An interesting part of the book was when the author states that when research on immigration first began in the 1980s, it was not much of a concern. However, this is certainly not the case today as it is an extremely important topic not only in the United States, but also all over the world.
Later on in the chapter, Borjas describes his upbringing as an immigrant. He was born in Cuba and came to the United States with his mother in 1962. In Cuba, his family owned a pants company, but it got confiscated after the communist takeover. Shortly after he arrived in Miami, the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred, which affected the ability of others to come to the United States. In fact, the author described this as a spark to his interest in immigration. Additionally, it was interesting to hear about the community he grew up in and other parts of his life. What were your thoughts on Borjas’ upbringing? Was there anything that surprised you? Also, how would you describe the change in importance of immigration over the decades?