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The Border Within
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The Border Within

The Economics of Immigration in an Age of Fear

Kalee Thompson and Tara Watson
University of Chicago Press, 2021
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Much of the public debate about immigration is based on assumptions that are patently false, professor Tara Watson and journalist Kalee Thompson report in this eye-opening text. For instance, most immigrants aren’t criminals; in fact, first-generation immigrants are far less likely to commit violent crimes than people born on US soil. And migrants generally avoid using food stamps and other programs for America’s poor. In this intriguing work, Watson and Thompson interweave thought-provoking tales of immigrants who have faced deportation with a sobering analysis of the academic literature about immigration.

Summary

Economic opportunity is the primary driver of illegal immigration to the United States.

People who move from poor countries to the United States do so primarily to earn a better living than they could at home. Some migrants flee violence at home, but the majority are looking for a paycheck. The cause and effect is seen when economic shocks hit Latin America. After Mexican wages plunged in 1999, for instance, US border patrol agents experienced a surge in apprehensions.

While American-born men with low levels of education tend not to relocate for work, Mexican-born migrants are quite willing to move around the United States in search of employment. Migration patterns have created a surge in the supply of workers without high school degrees. However, researchers have found little effect on wages for US-born workers. In fact, native workers benefit from immigration because overall economic activity increases, and native-born workers take higher-skilled positions.

Immigration has reshaped the market for low-wage, low-skill work in America.

One obvious effect of immigration is that Americans today rarely tend their own...

About the Authors

Tara Watson is a professor of economics at Williams College and a coeditor of the Journal of Human Resources. Kalee Thompson is a journalist and senior editor at Wirecutter.

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