In this recent CNN column, Philippe Legrain explains the injustice of many current immigration restrictions: It is no longer acceptable to discriminate against people on the basis of a whole range of characteristics that they happen to be born with, notably their gender, their race and their sexuality. So why is it still deemed acceptable […]
Archive | Immigration
The New York Times on the Politics of Russian Immigrants
The New York Times has an interesting article on the political attitudes of New York City’s Russian immigrant community. Unlike most New Yorkers and especially most New York Jews (the Russian immigrant community is overwhelmingly Jewish), they tend to support the GOP over the Democrats: To many Russian and Ukrainian immigrants, the cornucopia in the […]
Hispanics on Arizona’s Anti-Illegal-Immigrant Statute
From a Quinnipiac poll, conducted April 11 to April 17: 47. As you may know, in 2010 the state of Arizona passed a law that requires police to verify the legal status of someone they have already stopped or arrested if they suspect that the person is in the country illegally. Do you approve or […]
Conservatives and Immigration
Politico’s Arena site recently asked contributors to weigh in on whether the GOP is likely to be “wounded” by its support for severe restrictions on immigration. My answer is available here: The real tragedy here is not that the GOP might suffer politically, but that so many conservative Republicans have turned against immigration in the […]
Federalism, Immigration, and Interjurisdictional Competition
Temple law professor Peter Spiro has an interesting New York Times column arguing that supporters of immigration should not fear a Supreme Court decision upholding Arizona’s draconian anti-illegal immigrant law, because interjurisdictional competition is likely to take care of the problem. By contrast, he fears that if the Court strikes down the law, the result […]
HIAS Book of Immigration Memoirs by Soviet Jewish immigrants Now Available Online
The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society has just published a book of thirty immigration memoirs by Soviet Jewish immigrants, which is available for sale here. My father, Yefim Somin, and I are among the contributors. There are also several well-known contributors such as novelist Gary Shteyngart and artist Marc Klionsky. I blogged about my contribution here.
HIAS Event Launching a Book of Memoirs of Soviet Jewish Immigrants
This Sunday from 3 to 5 PM, I will be at an event sponsored by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in New York City, for the launch of a book of memoirs of immigration by Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The book includes contributions by thirty different immigrants, including a short version of […]
What’s Distinctive About America
For readers who may be interested, Immigration Daily recently reprinted my November post on “What’s Distinctive About America.”
Jeb Bush on Immigration
In this recent Washington Post op ed on how the GOP can increase its appeal to Hispanic voters, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush says the following about immigration: The American immigrant experience is the most aspirational story ever told. Immigrants left all that was familiar to them to come here and make a better life […]
What’s Distinctive About America?
The Metafilter site has an interesting thread consisting of comments by foreigners about what they think is most distinctive about the US [HT: Tyler Cowen]. I’ve lived in the US since I was six, so I can’t really see the country from the perspective of a foreigner or a recent immigrant. On the other hand, […]
Immigration and the Future of the United States
How can the U.S. maintain its standard of living, and its position of world leadership (technological, economic, and political)? Obviously it’s getting harder, partly because we’ve been so successful at sharing our free enterprise economic model with the world (a model that we itself inherited from others, though we improved on it), so that countries […]
Immigration and the Welfare State
Conservative and libertarian critics of immigration like to cite Milton Friedman’s observation that “[y]ou cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state,” which co-blogger Ken Anderson recently endorsed. The fear is that, given relatively open borders, immigrants from poor countries will flock to wealthy ones and undermine their economies by consuming huge amounts of […]
Ninth Circuit Panel Finds (by 2-1 Vote) That Jordanian Government Acquiesces in Honor Killings, Holds Jordanian Woman May Not Be Deported
The decision came Wednesday, in Suradi v. Holder; it’s not unprecedented, but my sense is that such decisions are rare enough to be noteworthy. An excerpt from the memorandum signed by Judges D.W. Nelson and Bybee, together with a dissent by Chief Judge Kozinski: Iman Khalil Suradi (“Suradi”), a native and citizen of Jordan, petitions […]
Tyler Cowen on the Political Attitudes of Russian Jewish Immigrants
In this post, Tyler Cowen asks why Russian Jewish immigrants tend to overwhelmingly support the GOP rather than the Democrats. The reasons are actually no mystery. As I have previously explained here and here, Russian Jews are hawkish on foreign policy and their experience with communism leads them to be suspicious of domestic policies that […]
Per Se Negligence, the Police, and Illegal Immigration
From Bologna v. City & County of San Francisco (Cal. Ct. App. Jan. 31, 2011): This case arises from the tragic and senseless killings of Anthony Bologna and his sons Michael and Matthew, who were stopped in traffic in San Francisco when Edwin Ramos, an illegal immigrant, allegedly shot and killed them…. The narrow question […]