George Borjas an economist from Harvard and the author of numerous books and articles on immigration was the opening speaker, September 12, in the Levitt Center's series on "Immigration and Global Citizenship
Borjas is the most prominent U.S. economist in the field of immigration. His recent book, Heavens Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy has been the topic of both praise and heated debate.
Borjas addressed a packed Kirner-Johnson Auditorium, providing the history of immigration in the U.S., an introduction to the economics of immigration and his insights on how to make immigration more economically beneficial to the U.S. Borjas argued that to improve the effects of immigrant workers in the U.S. the federal government should admit more high skilled workers and decrease yearly quotas from one million plus immigrants to around 500,000. He said, "With economics there is a clear answer, it is better to admit high skilled workers then low skilled workers." In regards to public policy issues Borjas said, "Before saying the policy should be this, we have to say what we want to accomplish." He said that U.S. policy makers must decide if their aim is to increase wages or increase per capita GDP (for example) when debating policy changes. Borjas concluded the evening with a question and answer session from the audience.Topics such as the "foreignization" of poverty, inequality in social classes and population trends were all discussed.