World Relief staffers Matthew Soerens and Jenny Yang move beyond the rhetoric to offer a Christian response to immigration. With careful historical understanding and thoughtful policy analysis, they debunk myths about immigration, show the limits of the current immigration system, and offer concrete ways for you to welcome and minister to your immigrant neighbors.
The go-to book on immigration: fact-based, comprehensive, and nonpartisan. Immigration is one of the most controversial topics in the United States and everywhere else. Pundits, politicians, and the public usually depict immigrants as either villains or victims. The villain narrative is that immigrants pose a threat—to our economy because they steal our jobs; our way of life because they change our culture; and to our safety and laws because of their criminality. The victim argument tells us that immigrants are needy outsiders—the poor, huddled masses whom we must help at our own cost if necessary. But the data clearly debunks both narratives. From jobs, investment, and innovation to cultural vitality and national security, more immigration has an overwhelmingly positive impact on everything that makes a society successful. In The Truth About Immigration, Wharton professor Zeke Hernandez draws from nearly 20 years of research to answer all the big questions about immigration. He combines moving personal stories with rigorous research to offer an accessible, apolitical, and evidence-based look at how newcomers affect our local communities and our nation. You'll learn about the overlooked impact of immigrants on investment and job creation; realize how much we take for granted the novel technologies, products, and businesses newcomers create; get the facts straight about perennial concerns like jobs, crime, and undocumented immigrants; and gain new perspectives on misunderstood issues such as the border, taxes, and assimilation. Most books making a case for immigration tell you that immigration is good for immigrants. This book is all about how newcomers benefit you, your community, and your country. Skeptics fear that newcomers compete economically with locals because of their similarities and fail to socially assimilate because of their differences. You'll see that it's exactly the opposite: newcomers bring enduring economic benefits because of their differences and contribute positively to society because of their similarities. Destined to become the go-to book on one of the most important issues of our time, this book turns fear into hope by proving a simple truth: immigrants are essential for economically prosperous and socially vibrant nations.
Revised and expanded edition of the groundbreaking book which demystifies twenty-one of the most widespread myths and beliefs about immigrants and immigrations. Aviva Chomsky dismantles twenty-one of the most widespread and pernicious myths and beliefs about immigrants and immigration in this incisive book. "They Take Our Jobs!" challenges the underlying assumptions that fuel misinformed claims about immigrants, radically altering our notions of citizenship, discrimination, and US history. With fresh material including a new introduction, revised timeline, and updated terminology section, this expanded edition is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how these myths are used to promote aggressive anti-immigrant policies.
Immigration, we hear about it all the time, often in unpleasant terms and/or in the context of illegality. Maybe that's why we think we know so much about it. We know what the politicians and pundits say, and we know what the media tell us. And, somewhere along the line we have formed our own opinions. But what is the truth? Do we care about the truth?
What are the myths and truths regarding immigration in the United States? This book provides readers with an impartial understanding of the true state of immigration and immigration policy in the United States by refuting falsehoods, misinformation, and exaggerations surrounding this topic—and confirming the validity of other assertions. Immigration: Examining the Facts provides a one-stop resource for straight answers on the impact—both positive and negative—of immigration trends on the United States. Its coverage of key issues serves students as well as members of the general public who want to better understand immigration trends and their effect on various aspects of American society. By utilizing quantifiable information from objective, authoritative sources, readers will be able to make informed judgments about immigration claims made by both liberals and conservatives. The book analyzes specific claims about immigration that are perpetuated through media or public discourse, identifies the origins of these claims, and then offers empirical data from impartial research sources to consider the veracity of those claims. Organized into subject chapters, each of which addresses assertions about specific immigration topics, this resource gives students and other users the tools to gain a more accurate understanding of the issue, improve their critical thinking skills, and increase their awareness of the views and strategies of political parties, lawmakers, news organizations, and advocacy groups on this important subject.
From "America’s leading immigration economist" (The Wall Street Journal), a refreshingly level-headed exploration of the effects of immigration. We are a nation of immigrants, and we have always been concerned about immigration. As early as 1645, the Massachusetts Bay Colony began to prohibit the entry of "paupers." Today, however, the notion that immigration is universally beneficial has become pervasive. To many modern economists, immigrants are a trove of much-needed workers who can fill predetermined slots along the proverbial assembly line. But this view of immigration’s impact is overly simplified, explains George J. Borjas, a Cuban-American, Harvard labor economist. Immigrants are more than just workers—they’re people who have lives outside of the factory gates and who may or may not fit the ideal of the country to which they’ve come to live and work. Like the rest of us, they’re protected by social insurance programs, and the choices they make are affected by their social environments. In We Wanted Workers, Borjas pulls back the curtain of political bluster to show that, in the grand scheme, immigration has not affected the average American all that much. But it has created winners and losers. The losers tend to be nonmigrant workers who compete for the same jobs as immigrants. And somebody’s lower wage is somebody else’s higher profit, so those who employ immigrants benefit handsomely. In the end, immigration is mainly just another government redistribution program. "I am an immigrant," writes Borjas, "and yet I do not buy into the notion that immigration is universally beneficial…But I still feel that it is a good thing to give some of the poor and huddled masses, people who face so many hardships, a chance to experience the incredible opportunities that our exceptional country has to offer." Whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent, We Wanted Workers is essential reading for anyone interested in the issue of immigration in America today.
Immigration divides our globalizing world like no other issue. We are swamped by illegal immigrants and infiltrated by terrorists, our jobs stolen, our welfare system abused, our way of life destroyed--or so we are told. At a time when National Guard units are deployed alongside vigilante Minutemen on the U.S.-Mexico border, where the death toll in the past decade now exceeds 9/11's, Philippe Legrain has written the first book about immigration that looks beyond the headlines. Why are ever-rising numbers of people from poor countries arriving in the United States, Europe, and Australia? Can we keep them out? Should we even be trying? Combining compelling firsthand reporting from around the world, incisive socioeconomic analysis, and a broad understanding of what's at stake politically and culturally, Immigrants is a passionate but lucid book. In our open world, more people will inevitably move across borders, Legrain says--and we should generally welcome them. They do the jobs we can't or won't do--and their diversity enriches us all. Left and Right, free marketeers and campaigners for global justice, enlightened patriots--all should rally behind the cause of freer migration, because They need Us and We need Them.
This report contains economic and demographic facts related to immigration, but it does not advocate any position or ideology nor make any judgments about whether immigrants should receive government services. When possible, data are presented as graphs. A review of the facts makes it apparent that the rate of U.S. immigration in the 1990s is about one-third of the rate of immigration at the beginning of the century, although the total number of immigrants, including illegals, is about the same or less than the number then. The foreign-born population of the United States is 8.5% of the total population, significantly lower than the 13% or higher of the period from 1860 to 1930. It is also evident that immigrants do not increase the rate of unemployment among native Americans, even for minority, female, and low-skill groups. The effect of immigration on wages may be negative on some special groups, and positive on others, but overall it is small. Total per capita government expenditures on immigrants are much lower than on the native-born population, no matter how immigrants are classified. It is true that narrowly defined welfare expenditures for immigrants are slightly more than for natives, but these are only a fraction of total government expenditures on immigrants and natives. The educational levels of immigrants have been increasing, although there are no major shifts in educational levels of immigrants relative to natives. (Contains 21 figures, 10 tables, and 114 references.) (SLD)
Excerpt from The Sieve, or Revelations of the Man Mill: Being the Truth About American Immigration There is occasion, in these days, for the gather ing of facts in regard to the workings of our immigration laws. These facts are to be secured either by personal observation, or by the testimony of those whose experience has qualified them to speak as experts. Among these latter I think of no one who has come in closer contact with the immigrant at the port than Feri Felix Weiss. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
