Thread by @Noahpinion

1/I reviewed @reihan Salam's "Melting Pot or Civil War?" for Foreign Affairs:
foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review…

2/This book is the best case for immigration restriction that you're likely to read anytime soon!

3/Salam's basic case for restricting low-skilled immigration is this:
1. The descendants of low-skilled immigrants will form a permanent economic underclass (thanks in part to automation and globalization).
2. That underclass will lead to racial tensions.

4/Salam's solution: Stop low-skilled immigration and let in high-skilled immigrants instead. They and their descendants will get good jobs and make plenty of money, thus easing their integration with the rest of America and creating a melting pot.

5/Salam's argument has three big advantages over the typical restrictionist case:
1. It's not based on racism, overtly or covertly.
2. Salam is extremely well-informed about the facts of the issue.
3. Shifting toward skilled immigration is good policy.

6/BUT, I have some problems with Salam's case.

First, the idea that low-skilled immigration will lead to increased racial tensions seems to contradict the experience of anyone who has seen the changes in L.A., San Diego, NYC, Houston, or other immigration-heavy cities.

7/Second, low-skilled immigration to the U.S. has already collapsed. Immigrants are increasingly well-educated. So this just doesn't seem like an urgent problem. We took in lots of low-skilled immigrants in the 90s and early 2000s, and what's done is done.

8/Like Reihan, I favor a skills-based immigration system that also allows family reunification, like the one Canada uses.

But my case for it relies a lot more on direct economic benefits, and less on prophecies of race war!

(end)

Oh, and you can buy the book here: amazon.com/Melting-Pot-Ci…