Book Review: The Immigrant Superpower

Summary

There are few politicians making an argument in favor of liberalized immigration in any form these days. The right continues its lurch toward nativism, and the progressive left has become increasingly ambivalent about new immigrants. The partisan fight over the legal status of the Dreamers obscures the fact that even people on the left have embraced the mistaken notion that immigrants take jobs away from hard‐​working Americans.While it’s hard to see this popular view changing anytime soon, that doesn’t mean liberal scholars should stop trying to persuade the public. To that end, Tim Kane’s recent book, The Immigrant Superpower, takes direct aim at the hardened assumptions of right‐​wing restrictionists and nativists. Kane, an economist with stops at the Joint Economic Committee, the Kauffman Foundation, and the Hoover Institution, effectively dismantles nativist shibboleths about foreigners taking our jobs or trying to change our culture. His book’s effectiveness goes beyond just tearing down hackneyed objections to foreign workers.

Creators/Authors

Ike Brannon
Senior Fellow, Jack Kemp Foundation, and former Cato Visiting Fellow