{"id":2959,"date":"2017-02-19T08:15:01","date_gmt":"2017-02-19T15:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/?p=2959"},"modified":"2017-02-25T19:43:29","modified_gmt":"2017-02-26T02:43:29","slug":"us-immigration-the-best-and-brightest-to-the-front-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/2017\/02\/19\/us-immigration-the-best-and-brightest-to-the-front-please\/","title":{"rendered":"US Immigration: “The Best and Brightest to the Front, Please”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Immigration is one of the most talked about political topics in the US and seems to dominate every speech around election time. Political figures have tried to find the \u201cperfect\u201d immigration system (the newest one being a $15 billion wall). But what do economists think about this issue? NPR\u2019s Planet Money<\/a> asked three different economists for their ideal immigration system for America\u2019s borders. One of these economists came up with a plan titled, \u201cthe best and brightest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first plan was given by Dean Baker, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. His \u201cdream system\u201d for American immigration would be one in which the high skilled workers from other countries are given priority with visas. The argument here is that immigrants who are scientists, doctors, and engineers will improve the economy more than low skilled workers. \u00a0Some may see this plan as raising ethical problems, but Baker contests that this policy would help with other problems, such as health care. With more doctors flowing into the labor market there would be more competition, which would be followed by a decrease in the cost of health expenses. But there could also be a decrease in labor supply in the food\/services market, as labor in that market is generally low skilled. Baker\u2019s plan puts emphasis on improving more crucial markets like health care and tech. The answer to the immigration question for this economist is \u201cthe best and brightest.\u201d<\/p>\n

An immigration plan for only the best and the brightest can sound a little cutthroat, but many economists view this system as being the most beneficial for American citizens. The Chicago Booth School of Business does surveys for economists and they posed the question: \u201cwould average U.S. citizens be better off if we let more highly educated workers immigrate?\u201d 37 of the 38 economists responded with an answer similar to Baker\u2019s. But this survey only covered a tiny portion of the expert economists in the US. There are most likely a range of differing opinions among American economists just like American political figures, as the search for the \u201cperfect\u201d policy continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Immigration is one of the most talked about political topics in the US and seems to dominate every speech around election time. Political figures have tried to find the \u201cperfect\u201d immigration system (the newest one being a $15 billion wall). But what do economists think about this issue? NPR\u2019s Planet Money asked three different economists for their ideal immigration system for America\u2019s borders. One of these economists came up with a plan titled, \u201cthe best and brightest.\u201d The first plan was given by Dean Baker, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. His \u201cdream system\u201d for American Continue reading US Immigration: “The Best and Brightest to the Front, Please”<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[461,341,276],"class_list":["post-2959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-health-care","tag-immigration","tag-labor-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2959"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2989,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959\/revisions\/2989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/econ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}