Heaven's Door : Immigration Policy and the American Economy

Rating:
Summary: A cuban who doesn't like mexicans
Review: A very sound piece of economic work. Regardless of what you feel about Borjas's conclusions, you must acknowledge the value of his economic analysis. To truly have an understanding of the immigration debate, you must have read Borjas's work. His contributions to the field are immeasurable. While I do not always agree with him on the place of "ethnicity" in the realm of immigration policy making, I am more educated for even considering his proposal. In sum, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in immigration issues--especially those interested in its economic impact.

Rating:
Summary: Required reading for study of modern immigration debate.
Review: A very sound piece of economic work. Regardless of what you feel about Borjas's conclusions, you must acknowledge the value of his economic analysis. To truly have an understanding of the immigration debate, you must have read Borjas's work. His contributions to the field are immeasurable. While I do not always agree with him on the place of "ethnicity" in the realm of immigration policy making, I am more educated for even considering his proposal. In sum, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in immigration issues--especially those interested in its economic impact.

Rating:
Summary: A cuban who doesn't like mexicans
Review: what else is new? This book is like most academic work these days: start with a conclusion, then find supporting arguments.

Borjas's $8-10 billion estimate does not take into account the present value of a higher expected GDP growth rate due to faster capital accumulation. Elementary college economics.

Welfare and assistance costs apply more to legal immigrants or 2nd generation immigrants (including cubans) than illegal ones. Last I heard you need a Social Security number to apply for govmnt assistance.

In any case I am a strong believer in free markets and I think the market should decide who comes here who doesn't.
Ethnicity, education etc are arbitrary criteria and they just reflect Borjas's psychology and prejudices.

What people really want is $$$ and jobs, we want here whomever is going to make everybody rich, create wealth, create jobs, pay taxes, help us kick China's arse and fight terrorists. We don't necessarily need more Harvard economic professors.

And we shouldn't care if those people come from Mexico or from Mars, I personally don't ...