Sign-In
Cart
We Wanted Workers: Unraveling the Immigration Narrative
Hardcover
EconomicsLaborImmigration & Refugees
ISBN13: 9780393249019
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: Oct 11 2016
Pages: 240
Weight: 1.15
Height: 1.00 Width: 6.20 Depth: 9.40
Language: English
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.
2 different editions
Also available
Also in
Immigration & Refugees
Too Many People?: Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis
Butler, Simon
Angus, Ian
Paperback
El Paso: Five Families and One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, and Memory
Ulloa, Jazmine
Hardcover
Nature Knows No Color-Line: Research into the Negro Ancestry in the White Race
Rogers, J. a.
Paperback
The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream
Keefe, Patrick Radden
Paperback
How to Close a Camp: Dispatches from the Fight Against Immigrant Detention
Washington, John
Paperback
Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America: Second Revised and Updated Edition
Gonzalez, Juan
Paperback
Shelter from the Storm: How Climate Change Is Creating a New Era of Migration
Hattem, Julian
Hardcover
Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of "Latino"
Tobar, Héctor
Paperback
Ciudadanía. Notas Sobre Un Mito Americano / Citizenship. Notes on an American Myth
Hernández, Daisy
Paperback
Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism
Walia, Harsha
Paperback
Not "A Nation of Immigrants": Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion
Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne
Paperback
Immigration Detention Inc.: The Big Business of Locking Up Migrants in America
Hiemstra, Nancy
Conlon, Deirdre
Paperback
Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship: African Americans, Native Americans, and Immigrants
Law, Anna O.
Paperback
Sigh, Gone: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit in
Tran, Phuc
Paperback
Growing Papaya Trees: Nurturing Indigenous Roots During Climate Displacement
Hernandez, Jessica
Paperback
Kitchens of Hope: Immigrants Share Stories of Resilience and Recipes from Home
Svitak, Linda S.
Eaton, Christin Jaye
Dean, Lee Svitak
Hardcover
Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America
Luo, Michael
Paperback
Nature Knows No Color-Line: Research into the Negro Ancestry in the White Race
Rogers, J. a.
Hardcover
Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America
Luo, Michael
Hardcover
The Cost of Being Undocumented: One Woman's Reckoning with America's Inhumane Math
Dick, Alix
Garcia, Antero
Hardcover
The Cost of Being Undocumented: One Woman's Reckoning with America's Inhumane Math
Garcia, Antero
Dick, Alix
Paperback
Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America - Updated Edition
Ngai, Mae M.
Paperback
Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings
Grande, Reyna
Guiñansaca, Sonia
Paperback
Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas
Lovato, Roberto
Paperback
Detenido: El Diario de Supervivencia Y Determinación de Un Niño
Morales, Gerardo Iván
Esperanza, David
Paperback
Dignity Not Citizenship: The Truth about Immigration No One Is Telling You
Salazar, Maria Elvira
Hardcover
Education and Democracy in an Age of Encounter: What Schools Must Do Now (Large Print Edition)
Strom, Adam F.
Paperback
Learning to Lead: Grassroots Organizing in Immigrant Communities: Grassroots Organizing in Immigrant Communities
Terriquez, Veronica
Paperback
Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States, Updated with a New Preface and Epilogue Volume 27
Holmes, Seth M.
Paperback
Migrant Midwest: The Case for Immigration and Economic Growth in the American Heartland
Burkham, Jonathan Mann
Hardcover
The Stowaway in First Class: A True Story of an Unforgettable Quest to Come to America
DeSantis, Anthony
Hardcover
Sanctuary in America: How Activists Defied the Government and Defended Immigrants--And Why It Still Matters
Barba, Lloyd D.
González, Sergio M.
Hardcover
Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother
Nazario, Sonia
Paperback
Central America's Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration
Chomsky, Aviva
Paperback
Harvesting Hope: One Girl's Journey from a Rwandan Farm to Global Science
Khalifa, Angelique
Paperback
Escape to Gold Mountain: A Graphic History of the Chinese in North America
Wong, David H. T.
Paperback
The Asylum Seekers: A Chronicle of Life, Death, and Community at the Border
Rathbone, Cristina
Hardcover
Latinoland (Spanish Edition): Un Retrato de la Mayor Minoría de Estados Unidos
Arana, Marie
Paperback
A Greek Tragedy: One Day, a Deadly Shipwreck, and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis
Carstensen, Jeanne
Paperback
Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate
Anderson, Leith
Soerens, Matthew
Yang, Jenny
Paperback
The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675
Bailyn, Bernard
Paperback
In the Country We Love: My Family Divided (Updated with New Material)
Burford, Michelle
Guerrero, Diane
Paperback
The Darién Gap: A Reporter's Journey Through the Deadly Crossroads of the Americas
Fernández, Belén
Hardcover
Must Read for Newcomers to America: Smart & Simple Tips to Succeed in Career, Family, and Life
Nguyen, Tom Nghia
Paperback
Dignidad, No Ciudadanía: La Verdad Sobre La Inmigración Que Nadie Te Cuenta
Salazar, María Elvira
Hardcover
Stopping the Deportation Machine: One Immigrant Student's Arrest and the Kids Who Took on Washington to Get Him Back
Christopher, Bryan
Hardcover
Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream
Greer, Christina M.
Paperback
Directory of Scots Banished to the American Plantations, 1650-1775. Second Edition (Revised)
Dobson, David
Paperback
Abolitionist Intimacies: Queer and Trans Migrants Against the Deportation State
Luibhéid, Eithne
Paperback
How to Close a Camp: Dispatches from the Fight Against Immigrant Detention
Washington, John
Hardcover
We are Sicilians Not Italians: The Journey and History of the Early Sicilian Immigrants
Giuseppa Basile, Josie
Paperback
What We Remember Will Be Saved: A Story of Refugees and the Things They Carry
Saldaña, Stephanie
Paperback
Welcome the Wretched: In Defense of the "Criminal Alien"
García Hernández, César Cuauhtémoc
Hardcover
Border Afterlives: Migrant Deaths, Forensic Investigations, and the Politics of Haunting
Soto, Gabriella
Paperback
Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship: African Americans, Native Americans, and Immigrants
Law, Anna O.
Hardcover
The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life
Markham, Lauren
Paperback
Now We Are Here: Family Migration, Children's Education, and Dreams for a Better Life
Oliveira, Gabrielle
Paperback
The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race
Ocampo, Anthony Christian
Paperback
Using Linguistically Appropriate Practice: A Guide for Teaching in Multilingual Classrooms
Chumak-Horbatsch, Roma
Paperback
Becoming American: Portland, Maine's Irish and the Making of Immigrant America 1840 - 1861
Barker, Matthew Jude
Paperback
Across Canons: Language, Latin American Immigrant Literature, and the Making of Latinx Narratives
Muñoz D., Thania
Paperback
Deadly Divide: How Insects, Pathogens, and People Defied the Us-Mexico Border
Mendoza, Mary E.
Paperback
Contentious Citizenship: Salvadoran Activism and Belonging Across Borders
Zimmerman, Arely M.
Paperback
Immigrant Physicians: Their Contributions and Influence on American Medical History
Rayan, Ghazi
Paperback
In the Shadow of Liberty: The Invisible History of Immigrant Detention in the United States
Minian, Ana Raquel
Hardcover
Born at the Gates of Hell: A Doctor's Frontline Story of Delivering Babies in Al-Hol Camp in Syria
Milland, Maria
Paperback