Author: Bobby Bohner

We Wanted Workers Introduction Reflection

            Throughout the introduction of We Wanted Workers, Borjas brings up many interesting points. One that stood out was his discussion of points made by Paul Collier, a professor at Oxford University. Collier asserts: “A rabid collection of xenophobes and racists who are hostile to immigrants lose no opportunity to argue that migration is bad for indigenous populations. Understandably, this has triggered a reaction: desperate not to give succor to these groups, social scientists have strained every muscle to show that migration is good for everyone” (21). Borjas proceeds to assert that this is a damaging statement to social science research, but he has suspected for a long time that much research was ideologically motivated, and “censored or filtered to spin the evidence in a way that would exaggerate the benefits from immigration and downplay the costs” (21). This is a question I have found myself asking before as I try to be very skeptical when reading assertions that are not backed by clear cut data. Borjas further asserts that We Wanted Workers “will provide various examples in which arbitrary conceptual assumptions, questionable data manipulations, and a tendency to overlook inconvenient facts help build the not-so-subtle narrative that Collier detected” (23). I think all of social science and all research in general should seek to pursue research in the way that Borjas does, by looking at the facts, instead of building research off of ideological obligations.

Throughout pages 71-100 of Race, Wrongs, and Remedies; Wax discusses the viability of employment remedies in trying to improve the situation of African Americans in America. An interesting point that Wax makes is that many people jump to the argument that race discrimination is the reason for many disadvantages African Americans face while looking for jobs. Wax asserts that race-based discrimination plays a negligible factor, which is something I never knew before. Further, Wax states that a many of the disadvantages African Americans face in looking for jobs stems from shortfalls in cognitive and noncognitive attitudes. Although many advocate for job training programs, Wax claims that these programs are ineffective because they cannot teach soft skills such as determination and communication, as these skills are established in early childhood. Much like her solutions proposed in education reform, Wax argues that behavioral reform in early childhood is the only effective remedy to improve the situation for African Americans. Although Wax asserts that job training is ineffective, I feel that it is something that cannot be done away with as it will only make the situation for African Americans even worse. Additionally, I agree with the point that behavioral reform at a young age would allow young children to develop soft skills, but the mechanisms for achieving this are unclear and do not seem attainable.

            In pages 64-70 of Race, Wrongs, and Remedies; Amy Wax discusses the problem of education in many African American communities. She explains that in most cases, it is hard to get better teachers to go teach in schools that are lagging and need improvement. Wax argues that good teachers are reluctant to teach in underprivileged schools because students are in many cases undisciplined and unprepared, even if the teachers are offered higher pay. Further, Wax goes on to assert that people focus on brick wall obstacles that they believe can be removed through external interventions, such as addressing teacher quality instead of the quality of the student. Wax feels that the only solution is a reform of behavior and determination through cultural reform. This is a very interesting argument, but definitely a solution that seems quite difficult to attain. Many of these shortcomings in behavior and determination stem from a lack of development at a very young age, which comes from how a child is raised at home. Although changes like this are very hard to attain, it does seem like creating a stable home life would have great benefits.