Lant Pritchett, economist: ‘Negativity around migration is the last breath of a moribund system’

Lant Pritchett · 29 Nov 2023 · english.elpais.com ↗

8 korrents from this piece

Lant Pritchett did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Hostility to migration is the last gasp of a dying system rather than the shape of the future.

Their wordsThe negativity around migration is the last breath of a moribund system and the transition to a more realistic approach.

Interesting
Our reading
Public hostility to immigration comes from fusing “who may work here” with “who becomes one of us”, and separating the two dissolves it.

Their wordsWhen you separate those two questions in public dialogue, the negative attitudes disappear.

Interesting
Our reading
Immigration policy should run on three separate tracks: future citizens, people allowed to work, and people admitted out of necessity.

Their wordsGovernments should create three tracks for people who come to live in their country. One track is that of people who hope to become Spanish. Another is that of those who we are going to allow to live and work here; the third is that of those of we are going to allow to be in Spain out of necessity.

Interesting
Our reading
Wanting to preserve a national culture is a legitimate human impulse and not in itself a racist one.

Their wordsValuing traditions, culture and history is simply a legitimate part of the human experience, and there is nothing wrong with preserving that.

Interesting
Our reading
Anti-immigration parties gain ground by generating fear, not by winning the argument about what immigration does.

Their wordsThe thing about the far-right parties is that they are trying to get people to equate all foreigners in a country with a threat to our future, but they are only gaining ground because of their ability to generate fear.

Interesting
Our reading
Demography is about to turn the rich world’s problem from finding a job for every person into finding a person for every job.

Their wordsBut once the demographics reverse, the challenge will be to find a person for every job. In the coming years, the impact of demographic changes is going to lead to chronic labor shortages.

Interesting
Our reading
Without immigrants Spain’s labour force falls from 22.6 to 15.7 million by 2050, far too few to run its economy.

Their wordsIn the absence of immigrants, between 2020 and 2050 Spain’s labor force (its active population) will drop from 22.6 to 15.7 million people. You’re not going to fill all the jobs needed in a modern and sophisticated economy like that of Spain’s with 15.7 million people.

Interesting
Our reading
Migrants filling low-skill jobs in rich countries take nobody’s job, because the native workforce is shrinking faster than those jobs are appearing.

Their wordsAccording to my numbers, in the United States there will be a net of 3.24 million new low-skill jobs, but there will also be 4.7 million fewer people in the labor force.

Interesting