In the final chapter of “We Wanted Workers”, George Borjas essentially summarizes what he believes to be the most important takeaways from his book. Borjas explains that there are three main themes in the book, the first of which being that immigrants are classified as either being merely labor inputs or as actually being people. The classification of labor inputs is wrong, according to Borjas, which I do agree with. The second theme is that although much research has been done on the economics of immigration, there is no real way of predicting the future of the economic patterns of immigration considering the people who immigrate are exactly that: people, and people involve many factors that can affect their “immigrant experience” (193). The third and final theme that he discusses is the importance and difficulties of skepticism when it comes to expert opinions on immigration. Because it is such a politicized topic, formulating individual ideas is important; however, since it is such a complex issue with many hidden factors, it is hard for those who are not experts on the subject to fully understand what is going on.
Borjas has an enriched background in the study of immigration and policy, which makes him a viable candidate for writing about this subject in depth. He explains a few topics that he believes will be helpful when predicting how immigration policy will be established in the future. An important one mentioned in this chapter is about assimilation, which had an entire chapter in the book. Borjas admits that “assimilation is not inevitable” (195) due to many factors including the skill level and population size of a specific group of immigrants.
Overall, Borjas stresses that other than in a utopian world, no policy change will be able to benefit everyone. This dilemma is what prompts him to ask the question “who are you rooting for?” (200) Because there is no way to benefit everyone, people have to make the tough decision of deciding which group to help most when creating immigration policy.
3 replies on “ERA: We Wanted Workers Ch. 10”
You summarize Borjas’s final chapter very well here. I like how you outline his points and also use evidence from the text to support these points. I think the point on assimilation is an interesting one. One might assume that immigrants must assimilate by doing things like learning English and adapting American culture in order to get a job etc., but due to the increasing population of immigrants this has not become the status quo. Additionally, it is definitely a tough choice to decide who to root for, as choosing each group has its costs and benefits. Overall, this is a well written ERA and you summarize Borjas’s arguments very well.
This is a well written Expository Reading Analysis and I like the way you went about it. The ending of this blog post is interesting especially because I just read a piece from Hardin about Pure Justice vs. Reality and this made me think of it. Hardin argues that there are negatives and there always will be, but there are things that outweigh the negatives that might not be so clear. I really agree with the fact that there is no way to benefit everyone, and if there was, that would be pure justice and according to Hardin, pure justice is outweighed by as little injustice as possible.
I think your ERA is very well written. It can often be somewhat difficult when summarizing a conclusion. You did a good job outlining Borjas’ major points. I think your last paragraph about how in any world, other than a utopian one, no policy change will benefit everyone is an interesting one. I think this is a true statement because in society if you change something there are often negative effects. In this case if one policy is changed to benefit immigrants than low income natives often don’t and vice versa.