INTERVIEW — REIHAN SALAM – Executive editor of National Review and author of new book “Melting Pot or Civil War? A Son of Immigrants Makes the Case Against Open Borders” (@reihan) – discussed his new book.
- LAST WEEK: More Than 22 Million Illegal Aliens In U.S., Study Finds. A new study by two Yale professors and an instructor at MIT puts the number of illegal aliens in America at 22.1 million — more than twice previous estimates. Most media outlets have reported that some 11.3 million illegals live in the U.S., but researchers Edward Kaplan, Jonathan Feinstein and Mohammad Fazel‐Zarandi say that’s not even close to the actual number. “Our original idea was just to do a sanity check on the existing number,” said Kaplan, a professor of operations research at Yale School of Management, according to a report in Yale Insights.
- Melting Pot or Civil War?: A Son of Immigrants Makes the Case Against Open Borders by Reihan Salam (Author) / Why would a son of immigrants call for tighter restrictions on immigration? For too long, liberals have suggested that only cruel, racist, or nativist bigots would want to restrict immigration. Anyone motivated by compassion and egalitarianism would choose open, or nearly-open, borders—or so the argument goes. Now, Reihan Salam, the son of Bangladeshi immigrants, turns this argument on its head. In this deeply researched but also deeply personal book, Salam shows why uncontrolled immigration is bad for everyone, including people like his family. Our current system has intensified the isolation of our native poor, and risks ghettoizing the children of poor immigrants. It ignores the challenges posed by the declining demand for less-skilled labor, even as it exacerbates ethnic inequality and deepens our political divides. If we continue on our current course, in which immigration policy serves wealthy insiders who profit from cheap labor, and cosmopolitan extremists attack the legitimacy of borders, the rise of a new ethnic underclass is inevitable. Even more so than now, class politics will be ethnic politics, and national unity will be impossible.
