#Ran Abramitzky

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The murder of Laken Riley took center stage during Thursday night's State of The Union. Riley was a 22-year-old student who was killed last month at the University of Georgia. The suspect in her murder is a Venezuelan migrant whom officials say was illegally in the U.S.

During the Republican rebuttal, Riley's murder was brought up by Alabama Sen. Katie Britt. "She was brutally murdered by one of the millions of illegal border crossers President Biden chose to release into our homeland. Y'all ... as a mom, I can't quit thinking about this. I mean, this could have been my daughter. This could have been yours."

The claim that immigration brings on a crime wave can be traced back to the first immigrants who arrived in the U.S. Ever since the 1980s and '90s, this false narrative saw a resurgence.

During the current presidential campaign, the vitriol has been intense. Just in the last few months, former president Donald Trump has spoken of immigrants as criminals and mentally ill people who are "poisoning the blood of our country". Florida Gov. (and former presidential candidate) Ron DeSantis suggested migrants crossing the border be shot.

However, research indicates that immigrants commit less crimes than U.S.-born people.

Much of the available data focuses on incarceration rates because that's where immigration status is recorded.

Some of the most extensive research comes from Stanford University. Economist Ran Abramitzky found that since the 1960s, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born people.

There is also state level research, that shows similar results: researchers at the CATO Institute, a Libertarian think tank, looked into Texas in 2019. They found that undocumented immigrants were 37.1% less likely to be convicted of a crime.

Beyond incarceration rates, research also shows that there is no correlation between undocumented people and a rise in crime. Recent investigations by The New York Times and The Marshall Project found that between 2007 and 2016, there was no link between undocumented immigrants and a rise in violent or property crime in those communities.

The reason for this gap in criminal behavior might have to do with stability and achievement. The Stanford study concludes that first-generation male immigrants traditionally do better than U.S-.born men who didn't finish high school, which is the group most likely to be incarcerated in the U.S.

The study also suggests that there's a real fear of getting in trouble and being deported within immigrant communities. Far from engaging in criminal activities, immigrants mostly don't want to rock the boat.

But the idea that immigrants bring crime remains widespread.

A few months ago, NPR reported on a migrant shelter functioning in Staten Island, N.Y. Anthony Pagano, the owner of a flower shop located close to the shelter, told NPR he was against it being located in his community.

"How do you put migrants across from an elementary school? An all-girl high school, and another public elementary school," he asked. "You don't know who they are. Criminals. You see all the crimes that are being committed by migrants."

New York City Police data shows there was no rise in murder, rapes or robberies in the area.

[pscottm]

Immigrants less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born : NPR

Some of the most extensive research comes from Stanford University. Economist Ran Abramitzky found that since the 1960s, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born people.

There is also state level research, that shows similar results: researchers at the CATO Institute, a Libertarian think tank, looked into Texas in 2019. They found that undocumented immigrants were 37.1% less likely to be convicted of a crime.

Beyond incarceration rates, research also shows that there is no correlation between undocumented people and a rise in crime. Recent investigations by The New York Times and The Marshall Project found that between 2007 and 2016, there was no link between undocumented immigrants and a rise in violent or property crime in those communities.

The reason for this gap in criminal behavior might have to do with stability and achievement. The Stanford study concludes that first-generation male immigrants traditionally do better than U.S-.born men who didn't finish high school, which is the group most likely to be incarcerated in the U.S.

[meret118]

Some of the most extensive research comes from Stanford University. Economist Ran Abramitzky found that since the 1960s, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born people.

There is also state level research, that shows similar results: researchers at the CATO Institute, a Libertarian think tank, looked into Texas in 2019. They found that undocumented immigrants were 37.1% less likely to be convicted of a crime.

. . .

Beyond incarceration rates, research also shows that there is no correlation between undocumented people and a rise in crime. Recent investigations by The New York Times and The Marshall Project found that between 2007 and 2016, there was no link between undocumented immigrants and a rise in violent or property crime in those communities.

[balioc]

BALIOC’S READING LIST, 2022 EDITION

With one exception, this list counts only published books, consumed in published-book format, that I read for the first time and finished. (There was one serious-seeming book that, as far as I know, exists only in free-floating PDF form.) No rereads, nothing abandoned halfway through, no Internet detritus of any kind apart from the aforementioned, etc.  Also no children’s picture books.

1. The Blue Castle, Lucy Maude Montgomery

2. The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, Priya Parker

3. The Girl and the Mountain, Mark Lawrence

4. There Is No Antimemetics Division, qntm

5. Dreamsnake, Vonda N. McIntyre

6. War and State Building in Medieval Japan, Various (ed. John A. Ferejohn and Frances McCall Rosenbluth)

7. Legal Systems Very Different From Ours, David Friedman, Peter T. Leeson, and David Skarbek

8. The Revolutions, Felix Gilman

9. Age of Ash, Daniel Abraham

10. When the Sea Turned to Silver, Grace Lin

11. Summer in Orcus, T. Kingfisher

12. The Thousand Eyes, A. K. Larkwood

13. Kingfall, David Estes

14. Surrogation, Suspended Reason

15. The Hands of the Emperor, Victoria Goddard

16. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro

17. Hakkenden -- Part 1: "An Ill-Considered Jest," Kyokutei Bakin

18. Claws of the Cat, Susan Spann

19. Blade of the Samurai, Susan Spann

20. Flask of the Drunken Master, Susan Spann

21. The Ninja's Daughter, Susan Spann

22. Betrayal at Iga, Susan Spann

23. Trial at Mount Koya, Susan Spann

24. Ghost of the Bamboo Road, Susan Spann

25. Fires of Edo, Susan Spann

26. The Discord of Gods, Jenn Lyons

27. All the Seas of the World, Guy Gavriel Kay

28. Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley, Edward Plunkett, Lord Dunsany

29. Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success, Ran Abramitzky and Leah Bousyan

30. Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

31. Perhaps the Stars, Ada Palmer

32. Dreadgod, Will Wight

33. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore

34. Manfred, George Gordon, Lord Byron

35. Friend to Mankind: Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), Various (ed. Michael Shepherd)

36. Locklands, Robert Jackson Bennett

37. The Jade Setter of Janloon, Fonda Lee

38. Spring Snow, Yukio Mishima

39. Against All Gods, Miles Cameron

40. Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

41. Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century, J. Bradford DeLong

42. The Golden Enclaves, Naomi Novik

43. The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Vol. I, George R. R. Martin, Elio M. Garcia Jr., and Linda Antonsson

44. A Garter as a Lesser Gift, Aster Glenn Gray

45. The Night-Bird's Feather, Jenna Moran

46. Absolution by Murder, Peter Tremayne

47. The Lost Metal, Brandon Sanderson

48. Shroud for the Archbishop, Peter Tremayne

49. Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter, Richard Parks

50. Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate, Richard Parks

51. Yamada Monogatari: The War God's Son, Richard Parks

52. Yamada Monogatari: The Emperor in Shadow, Richard Parks

53. Pulling the Wings off Angels, K. J. Parker

54. Laurus, Eugene Vodolazkin

55. The Ogre's Wife: Fairy Tales for Grownups, Richard Parks

56. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, Fyodor Dostoevsky

Plausible works of improving nonfiction consumed in 2021: 7

[“plausible” and “improving” are being defined very liberally here]

Works written by women consumed in 2021: 23

Works written by men consumed in 2021: 29

Works written by both men and women consumed in 2021: 4

Balioc’s Choice Award, Fiction Division: The Remains of the Day

>>>> Honorable Mention: Laurus

Balioc’s Choice Award, Nonfiction Division: Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century

>>>> Honorable Mention: War and State Building in Medieval Japan

Series Award for: A Deeply Flawed Work of Luminescent Genius, No Really, This Thing is Artistically and Intellectually Important and Its Flaws Only Make It More So, Dear God What Were They Thinking Not Giving It the Hugo -- the Terra Ignora books, by Ada Palmer

Series Award for: I Cannot Begin to Articulate How Mad I Am That These Books of All Books Have Become Cultural Touchstones of My Local Social and Artistic Circle -- the Locked Tomb books, by Tamsyn Muir

Series Award for: I Must Give Credit to a Brave Author Who Makes Unexpected Moves and Tries New Things with Every Book, Even if Everything She Tries is Terrible -- the Locked Tomb books, by Tamsyn Muir

**********

Fiction-wise, this was actually a better year than you'd think from just eyeballing the list. The overall numbers are still below par, and there's too much shlocky formulaic mystery-series-type stuff; but there was a lot of real quality in there. I had real trouble deciding on my top two, and I ended up not giving either prize to a book by Jenna Moran writing at her normal level of quality, so that says something. There were a number of books that disappointed by not being amazing but that I'm still glad to have read (e.g. Summer in Orcus, The Hands of the Emperor). Even the shlocky formulaic stuff had more merit than you might expect, in many cases.

Serious contemplatively-emotional litfic is real good, at its best. Turns out.

Non-fiction-wise, this was a shitshow of unparalleled proportions. I read almost nothing, and what I read was uninspiring. (I started s number of things that I failed to finish, which didn't help.) I seriously considered making this a "no award" year. I am once again asking for your recommendations for really good, deeply-informative, blow-your-mind-open non-fiction.

[progressive-globe]

[March 4, 2024]

National Public Radio:

Some of the most extensive research comes from Stanford University. Economist Ran Abramitzky found that since the 1960s, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born people. There is also state level research, that shows similar results: researchers at the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank, looked into Texas in 2019. They found that undocumented immigrants were 37.1% less likely to be convicted of a crime. Beyond incarceration rates, research also shows that there is no correlation between undocumented people and a rise in crime. Recent investigations by The New York Times and The Marshall Project found that between 2007 and 2016, there was no link between undocumented immigrants and a rise in violent or property crime in those communities. The reason for this gap in criminal behavior might have to do with stability and achievement. The Stanford study concludes that first-generation male immigrants traditionally do better than U.S-.born men who didn't finish high school, which is the group most likely to be incarcerated in the U.S. The study also suggests that there's a real fear of getting in trouble and being deported within immigrant communities. Far from engaging in criminal activities, immigrants mostly don't want to rock the boat. But the idea that immigrants bring crime remains widespread.

[newstfionline]

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Upwardly mobile (NYT) Two economists—Ran Abramitzky of Stanford and Leah Boustan of Princeton—embarked on an ambitious project more than a decade ago. They wanted to know how the trajectory of immigrants to the United States had changed since the 1800s. To do so, Abramitzky and Boustan collected millions of tax filings, census records and other data and analyzed upward mobility over time. Their findings, published in a 2022 book titled “Streets of Gold,” showed that recent immigrant families had climbed the country’s ladder at a strikingly similar pace to immigrant families from long ago. “The American dream is just as real for immigrants from Asia and Latin America now as it was for immigrants from Italy and Russia 100 years ago,” Abramitzky and Boustan wrote. As in the past, immigrants themselves tend to remain poor if they arrive poor, as many do. But as in the past, their children usually make up ground rapidly, regardless of where they come from. This encouraging pattern obviously challenges the dark view of recent immigrants that conservatives sometimes offer.

Drone Swarms Are About to Change the Balance of Military Power (WSJ) The most formidable element of American power-projection has long been the warship. After the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel, the Biden administration sent two carrier battle groups to the region to deter Iranian aggression. One of those carriers, the USS Gerald R. Ford, was on its maiden voyage, having recently been completed at a price tag of $13 billion. This makes it the most expensive warship in history. For that same sum, a nation could purchase 650,000 Shahed drones. It would only take a few of those drones finding their target to cripple and perhaps sink the Ford. Fortunately, the Ford and other U.S. warships possess ample missile defense systems that make it highly improbable that a few, or even a few dozen, Shahed drones could land direct hits. But rapid developments in AI are changing that. The drone will change the face of warfare when employed in swarms directed by AI. This moment hasn’t yet arrived, but it is rushing to meet us. If we’re not prepared, these new technologies deployed at scale could shift the global balance of military power.

New York City’s Population Shrinks by 78,000, According to Census Data (NYT) New York City’s population declined again last year, according to new census estimates. But city officials said that those figures did not fully account for the growing number of migrants, which would have resulted in a minimal drop being reported. The city lost nearly 78,000 residents in 2023, shrinking its population to 8.26 million people, according to the estimates, which were released on Thursday. In 2022, it lost more than 126,000 residents. From April 2020 to July 2023, the city lost almost 550,000 residents, or more than 6 percent of its population.

Haiti’s top gang leader threatens politicians as fires break out in capital (Reuters) A powerful gang leader in Haiti has issued a threatening message aimed at political leaders who would participate in a planned transition council, as fires broke out amid a fresh surge of violence in the Caribbean nation’s capital. Nearby countries bolstered their border security and withdrew staff from embassies while plans to send a long-awaited international security force remain uncertain. After unpopular Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced on Monday he would step down once the council was in place, the capital, Port-au-Prince, was initially quieter, but violence appeared to be flaring up again as of late Wednesday, with a shootout in one neighborhood and an attack on the police academy early on Thursday.

Cuba’s food shortage (The Week) Cuba has experienced hardships for months in what some are calling the country’s “worst economic crisis in 30 years.” Cubans are facing skyrocketing prices for gas, commodities and basic services, along with an economy that continues to shrink overall. The most pressing issue, though, remains a national food shortage that has led to widespread humanitarian issues. Amid this continuing shortage, the Cuban government has made a request to the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) seeking nutritional aid for its people. Previously, Cuba had only requested WFP support following natural disasters—never due to economic hardships. But food scarcity remains an ongoing problem throughout the country, and overall food production is reportedly down 50% since 2018, officials said. Cuban officials blame the crisis on the aftermath of Covid-19, as well as “stiffened sanctions against the island implemented under former President Donald Trump,” Reuters said. But many say the problem lies with mismanagement.

Denmark plans to expand military draft to women for the first time (AP) Denmark wants to increase the number of young people doing military service by extending conscription to women and increasing the time of service from 4 months to 11 months for both genders, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Wednesday. Denmark currently has up to 9,000 professional troops on top of the 4,700 conscripts undergoing basic training, according to official figures. The government wants to increase the number of conscripts by 300 to reach a total of 5,000. All physically fit men over the age of 18 are called up for military service, which lasts roughly four months. However, because there are enough volunteers, there is a lottery system, meaning not all young men serve. In 2023, there were 4,717 conscripts in Denmark. Women who volunteered for military service accounted for 25.1% of the cohort, according to official figures.

The Tories’ Take On Extremism (NYT) On Thursday, the British Tory government announced a new definition of extremism, which has raised criticism from rights groups who say that the new definition may be used to attack campaigners’ rights and curb free speech in an election year. A government spokesman says the new definition will “protect democratic values” by being “clear and precise in identifying the dangers posed by extremism,” and the government says it will be used to cut ties or funding to groups that exhibit extremism under its new definition. “The definition remains extremely broad,” said one British lawyer who reviews legislation for the government. “For example, it catches people who advance an ideology which negates the fundamental rights of others. One can imagine both sides of the trans debate leaping on that one.” Rishi Sunak’s government is expected to publish a list of groups it’s deemed to have run afoul of its new extremism threshold in the next few weeks.

US-Hungary relationship reaches new low (NYT) Prime Minister Viktor Orban is jeopardizing Hungary’s position as a trusted NATO ally, the U.S. ambassador to Budapest warned on Thursday, with “its close and expanding relationship with Russia,” and with “dangerously unhinged anti-American messaging” in state-controlled media. The ambassador, David Pressman, has for months criticized Mr. Orban for effectively siding with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia over the war in Ukraine, but his latest remarks sharply ratcheted up tensions and indicated that trust in Hungary among NATO allies had collapsed. The speech followed a visit last week by Mr. Orban, a darling of MAGA Republicans in the United States, to Donald J. Trump at the former president’s home and members-only club in Florida. After their meeting, Mr. Orban claimed in an interview with Hungarian state television that Mr. Trump had outlined to him a “pretty detailed plan” for ending the war in Ukraine that would involve an abrupt halt to United States aid to Russia’s embattled neighbor. Such a plan closely parallels what Mr. Orban has been advocating for the European Union—a suspension of all financial and military support for Ukraine, and a policy of pushing the government in Kyiv into immediate peace negotiations with Moscow.

Russian Election Begins (1440) President Vladimir Putin is expected to claim a fifth presidential term as Russia begins its three-day election today. The vote will include inhabitants of regions of Ukraine occupied by Russia since 2022. Putin has led Russia as either prime minister or president since 1999. While Russia’s 1993 constitution implemented term limits, referendums and amendments since have allowed Putin to keep power. The 71-year-old retains high approval ratings, and Russia’s economy has withstood broad international sanctions initiated after the invasion. Observers claim the government’s control of candidates and its ban on independent media have effectively neutralized opponents’ ability to compete with Putin. While the three opposition candidates have levied criticisms against the regime, all support the Ukraine war. An antiwar candidate, Boris Nadezhdin, was barred from the ballot last month.

On Gaza aid, U.S. seeks complex workarounds to straightforward problem (Washington Post) President Biden’s plan to build a temporary port to supply aid to Gaza recalls the effort at Normandy: a near-insurmountable engineering and logistics problem. But in undertaking this resource-heavy endeavor—set to require 1,000 troops and two months, at a cost that remains to be tallied, alongside expensive and inefficient aid airdrops—the United States is not circumventing forbidding geography. It is pursuing a logistically complicated workaround to what analysts say is a fundamentally simple problem: Getting aid into Gaza by land. The Gaza Strip is surrounded by existing routes, in the care of staunch U.S. allies, by which a massive increase in aid could feasibly arrive by truck. For months, aid groups have urged Israel to allow more trucks into Gaza. Drawing in part on field research conducted within the region, Refugees International, a U.S.-based humanitarian organization, issued a report this month finding that Israeli restrictions had “obstructed humanitarian action at every step of the aid delivery process” by seemingly arbitrary denials of legitimate humanitarian goods entering Gaza; a highly complicated and inconsistent inspection process; frequent denials of internal humanitarian movements; and attacks on humanitarian and critical infrastructure, among other policies “causing a man-made humanitarian crisis.”

West, Central Africa see major internet outage with undersea cables down (Reuters) A major internet outage affected West and Central Africa on Thursday, the internet observatory Netblocks said, as operators of multiple subsea cables reported failures. The cause of the cable failures was not immediately clear. Ivory Coast was experiencing a severe outage, while Liberia, Benin, Ghana and Burkina Faso were seeing a high impact, Netblocks’s data showed. Internet firm Cloudflare said in a post on the X social media platform that major internet disruptions were ongoing in Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin and Niger.

Google meals (Bloomberg) Google is best known as a tech company, but it’s got a formidable food business too, as it seeks to feed its armies of workers in a crucial tech perk that helps it maintain talent. The company’s food waste, however, threatens its ambitious climate goals, so it’s trying to make the whole operation more efficient without ticking off workers. The company prepares over 240,000 meals per day across 386 cafes, as well as 1,500 microkitchens and 49 food trucks in a fairly expansive operation. For perspective, there are only 360 Cheesecake Factory restaurant locations in North America, so the company is really operating at an impressive logistical scale, and a tweak as simple as adjusting when eggs are prepared cut food waste for the dish by 44 percent.

[gabrielerner]

El mito del inmigrante criminal, la Segunda Gran Mentira republicana

“Desde Henry Cabot Lodge a finales del siglo XIX hasta Donald Trump, los políticos antiinmigración han intentado repetidamente vincular a los inmigrantes con el crimen, pero nuestra investigación confirma  que esto es un mito y que no se basa en hechos”. Profesor Ran Abramitzky Jim Jordan, dos veces campeón nacional de lucha libre, es un lacayo de Trump – no aliado, porque Trump no tiene aliados,…

[visto-usa-visti-stati-uniti]

Conversazioni dell'inviato: "Strade d'oro: la storia non raccontata del successo degli immigrati in America" ​​con gli autori Leah Boustan e Ran Abramitzky - Immigrazione generale #Conversazioni #dellinviato #Strade #doro #storia #raccontata #del #successo #degli #immigrati #America #con #gli #autori #Leah #Boustan #Ran #Abramitzky #Immigrazione #generale #vistoe1 #vistoe1 #vistousa #vistostaiuniti #vistoamerica #visto #immigrazione

Conversazioni dell’inviato: “Strade d’oro: la storia non raccontata del successo degli immigrati in America” ​​con gli autori Leah Boustan e Ran Abramitzky – Immigrazione generale #Conversazioni #dellinviato #Strade #doro #storia #raccontata #del #successo #degli #immigrati #America #con #gli #autori #Leah #Boustan #Ran #Abramitzky #Immigrazione #generale #vistoe1 #vistoe1 #vistousa #vistostaiuniti #vistoamerica #visto #immigrazione

Conversazioni dell’inviato: “Strade d’oro: la storia non raccontata del successo degli immigrati in America” ​​con gli autori Leah Boustan e Ran Abramitzky – Immigrazione generale 01 agosto 2022 Inviato Global, Inc. Per stampare questo articolo è sufficiente essere registrati o effettuare il login su Mondaq.com. mercoledì 3 agosto 2022 14:00 ET / 13:00 CT / 11:00 PT Unisciti a noi per la…

[pterryy]

PDF Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success BY Ran Abramitzky

Download Or Read PDF Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success - Ran Abramitzky Free Full Pages Online With Audiobook.

  [*] Download PDF Here => Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success

[*] Read PDF Here => Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success

[tomasa73v]

[PDF] Download Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success EBOOK -- Ran Abramitzky

Download Or Read PDF Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success - Ran Abramitzky Free Full Pages Online With Audiobook.

  [*] Download PDF Here => Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success

[*] Read PDF Here => Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success

[jewishbookworld]

The Mystery of the Kibbutz: Egalitarian Principles in a Capitalist World by Ran Abramitzky

The Mystery of the Kibbutz: Egalitarian Principles in a Capitalist World by Ran Abramitzky

How the kibbutz movement thrived despite its inherent economic contradictions and why it eventually declined

The kibbutz is a social experiment in collective living that challenges traditional economic theory. By sharing all income and resources equally among its members, the kibbutz system created strong incentives to free ride or―as in the case of the most educated and skilled―to depart for…

[ownerzero]

Even Poorest Immigrants Can Lift Themselves Up Within A Generation, Study Says

Compared to their peers whose parents are born in the United States, almost universally, adult children of immigrants show more upward economic mobility. Economic ability is the ability of an individual or a family to improve (upward) or worsen (downward) their economic status. Indeed, a new working paper by Stanford University’s Ran Abramitzky; Princeton University’s […]

The post Even Poorest Immigrants Can Lift Themselves Up Within A Generation, Study Says appeared first on AWorkstation.com.

source https://aworkstation.com/even-poorest-immigrants-can-lift-themselves-up-within-a-generation-study-says/

[ericfruits]

How “regularising” undocumented immigrants brings benefits

ON OCTOBER 8th, the Trump administration issued a set of hardline ‘immigration principles and policies’ that it suggested would be tied to any deal to extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, an Obama-era executive initiative that stalled deportation for nearly 800,000 undocumented young people brought to America as children. The list of demands includes funding for Donald Trump’s border wall, further restricting of asylum applications and tighter rules for unaccompanied child refugees. These conditions are considered deal breakers for Congressional Democrats who in September announced they had reached a tentative deal with the president to replace DACA days after he had announced its end. 

But the new “principles” are in line with countless calls from Mr Trump and his supporters for immigration curbs on the grounds that immigrants are taking jobs, bringing crime, and refusing to adopt “American values.” The irony is that ending the uncertainty faced by DACA immigrants and their families would have helped the process of assimilation and reduced the crime and economic risks, already small, that migrants represent. 

In 2016 Candidate Trump claimed that “When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. ... They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists.” He has also complained that Mexicans won’t learn English and Muslim immigrants won’t assimilate. In September, when Mr Sessions announced the end of DACA, he echoed that language, suggesting that failure to enforce immigration laws in the past “has put our nation at risk of crime, violence and even terrorism.”

Similar fears have dogged waves of immigrants from the nineteenth century onwards. After a mass-lynching of Italian immigrants in New Orleans in 1891, the New York Times reported that the victims were “... sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins.” 

But migrants then and (even more) now are far from the law-breaking dregs of their home countries and they do assimilate when they arrive. Ran Abramitzky and Leah Platt Boustan, economists, find that recent migrants to America tend to be better educated than the average in their home country—an improvement over past waves of migrants. And when they arrive, immigrants are comparatively law-abiding. The Cato Institute’s analysis of incarceration rates suggests 1.53% of native-born Americans aged 18-54 are in prison compared to 0.85% of illegal immigrants and 0.47% of legal immigrants. 

As those statistics suggest, regularising the status of undocumented immigrants further lowers crime rates. Paolo Pinotti of Bocconi University studied applicants for Italian residency permits who differed only by the fact some applied just before the time when the quota of permits were used up and some just after. Among those who received residency permits the crime rate was half of those who did not get permits.

The certainty of a residency permit or citizenship has other positive effects. Tommaso Frattini of the University of Milan has studied international data to document a strong consensus that security of residency both raises wages and improves social integration: secure immigrants join clubs, start reading local papers, and become politically engaged.

DACA recipients appear to fit this pattern: Tom Wong of the University of California conducted a (non-random) online survey of 3,063 recipients in 2017. Ninety eight percent were bilingual. Sixty percent reported that DACA status had encouraged them to pursue educational opportunities and 54% suggested it helped them get a job. The respondents also reported a significant uptick in organ and blood donation after their DACA status came through. 

Mr Trump seemed to accept, briefly, that DACA beneficiaries (at least) don’t match his usual image of immigrants. On September 14th he tweeted, “Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!.....” His administration’s recent statement suggests he is having third thoughts. That re-reversal is a loss not just to DACA recipients and their families, but to the whole of America.

http://ift.tt/2hCp5zN

[jewsome]

The 61 books posted on JewishBookWorld.org in May 2020

Here is the list of the 61 books that I posted on this site, JewishBookWorld.org in May 2020. The image above contains some of the covers. The bold links take you to the book’s page on Amazon; the “on this site” links to the book’s page on this site.

The Abba Tree by Devora Busheri and Gal Shkedi (on this site)

All My Mother’s Lovers by Ilana Masad (on this site)

American Jewish Thought Since 1934: Writings on Identity, Engagement, and Belief by Michael Marmur, David Ellenson (on this site)

And in the Vienna Woods the Trees Remain by Elisabeth Asbrink (on this site)

Another Side of Paradise by Sally Koslow (on this site)

As I Was Burying Comrade Stalin: My Life Becoming a Jewish Dissident by Arkady Polishchuk (on this site)

Between Religion and Reason: The Dialectical Position in Contemporary Jewish Thought from Rav Kook to Rav Shagar, Part I by Ephraim Chamiel (on this site)

Blessed as We Were by Gerald Stern (on this site)

Blood Memory by Gail Newman (on this site)

A Body Of Her Own: Jewish Women Sharing Intimate Stories About Their Mikveh Rituals by Ella Kanner (on this site)

The Book of V. by Anna Solomon (on this site)

The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz: A True Story of Family and Survival by Jeremy Dronfield (on this site)

Boynton Beach Chronicles: Tails of Norman by Jerry Klinger (on this site)

Casting Down the Host of Heaven by Cat Quine (on this site)

A Ceiling Made of Eggshells by Gail Carson Levine (on this site)

Child Harold of Dysna by Moyshe Kulbak (on this site)

Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris (on this site)

Citizenship and Antisemitism in French Colonial Algeria, 1870-1962 by Sophie B. Roberts (on this site)

The Coat by April Grunspan (on this site)

The Collaborator by Diane Armstrong (on this site)

A Companion to Late Ancient Jews and Judaism: 3rd Century BCE – 7th Century CE by Gwynn Kessler, Naomi Koltun-Fromm (on this site)

The Convert by Stefan Hertmans (on this site)

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky (on this site)

Defenders of the Faith: Studies in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Orthodoxy and Reform by Judith Bleich (on this site)

Designated Hebrew: The Ron Blomberg Story by Ron Blomberg (on this site)

Don’t Tell Ima by Lisa Barness (on this site)

Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women’s Voices from the Gulag by Monika Zgustova (on this site)

Embracing Auschwitz: Forging a Vibrant, Life-Affirming Judaism that Takes the Holocaust by Joshua Hammerman (on this site)

Eve and All the Wrong Men by Aviya Kushner (on this site)

Exile Music by Jennifer Steil (on this site)

Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age by Ayala Fader (on this site)

The Interpreter by A.J. Sidransky (on this site)

The Jewish Spy by Hayuta Katzenelson (on this site)

The Jewish Wedding: A Guide to the Rituals and Traditions of the Wedding Ceremony by Dovber Pinson (on this site)

The Jews Of Iraq: 3000 Years Of History And Culture by Nissim Rejwan (on this site)

Judaism, Race, and Ethics: Conversations and Questions by Jonathan K. Crane (on this site)

The King of Chicago: Memories of My Father by Daniel Friedman (on this site)

KOLOT: Raising a Jewish Daughter by Valley Beit Midrash (on this site)

Levinas and the Torah: A Phenomenological Approach by Richard I. Sugarman (on this site)

The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata (on this site)

Man of My Time by Dalia Sofer (on this site)

Mendelevski’s Box by Roger Swindells (on this site)

The Mystery of the Kibbutz: Egalitarian Principles in a Capitalist World by Ran Abramitzky (on this site)

Never to Be Forgotten: A Young Girl’s Holocaust Memoir by Beatrice Muchman (on this site)

The New Zionists: Young American Jews, Jewish National Identity, and Israel by David L. Graizbord (on this site)

Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People by (on this site)

Pain by Zeruya Shalev (on this site)

Projecting the Nation: History and Ideology on the Israeli Screen by Eran Kaplan (on this site)

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi: Essential Teachings by Or N. Rose, Netanel Miles-Yépez (on this site)

Rebbe Nachman’s Tales: Stories for Personal Refinement by Bruce D. Forman, Steven J. Kaplan, Shoshannah Brombacher (on this site)

Recipes for a Sacred Life: True Stories and a Few Miracles by Rivvy Neshama (on this site)

Refugees or Migrants: Pre-Modern Jewish Population Movement by Robert Chazan (on this site)

Rescued from the Ashes: The Diary of Leokadia Schmidt, Survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto by Leokadia Schmidt (on this site)

The Secret Music at Tordesillas by Marjorie Sandor (on this site)

Serenade for Nadia by Zülfü Livaneli (on this site)

The Shabbat Treasure by Evelyn Goldfinger (on this site)

Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres (on this site)

Shuk: From Market to Table, the Heart of Israeli Home Cooking by Einat Admony, Janna Gur (on this site)

Stan Lee: A Life in Comics by Liel Leibovitz (on this site)

Villa of Delirium by Adrien Goetz (on this site)

Vladimir Jabotinsky’s Russian Years, 1900-1925 by Brian J. Horowitz (on this site)

The post The 61 books posted on JewishBookWorld.org in May 2020 appeared first on Jewish Book World.

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[newstfionline]

Norway was once the kind of country Trump might’ve spit on. Now its people don’t even want to come here.

By Andrew Van Dam, Washington Post, January 12, 2018

After telling lawmakers in an Oval Office meeting Thursday he doesn’t want more immigration from “shithole countries,” President Trump said the United States should bring in more people from countries such as Norway instead.

In the history of international migration to the United States, it was a deeply ironic statement. (Many have also called it racist, because Trump used the vulgarity to describe Haiti, El Salvador and African nations.)

About a century ago, a wave of European migration drew many Norwegians to the United States. At the time, they faced challenges assimilating and catching up with native-born Americans.

But now that the president wants Norwegians to come on over? They’re probably too successful to bother.

Norway may have been on Trump’s mind because of his recent meeting with the country’s prime minister, who would have reason to boast of her country’s economic success. Norway has ranked at the top of the U.N.’s Human Development Index for all of this century. By all measures, it has a high quality of life.

But, interestingly enough, that’s a relatively recent development.

For the vast majority of their shared history, including the period in the mid- to late 1800s and early 1900s that comprised the biggest wave of immigration from what is now Norway to the United States, Norway might have been on the president’s so-called manure pile.

European immigrants of that time fueled many of the same fears about immigration we see today, and politicians fought to close the nation’s borders back then as successive waves of migrants from different European countries faced hostility upon arrival in the United States.

Today, those immigrants are idealized as a fast-assimilating group that came over with nothing but the shirts on their backs, and handed their children the American Dream. Some place them in sharp contrast to what they see as the insular communities of present-day immigrants such as those called out by the president. But it only appears that those migrants assimilated quickly because past economists only looked at a moment in time, instead of following individuals throughout their lives.

“[There’s a misconception that] in the past these European migrants were just really scrappy, they just pulled themselves up by their bootstraps really quickly,” Princeton economist Leah Boustan said. “But that was just sort of a data illusion.”

Norwegians, the very group Trump held up as ideal immigrants, epitomize this effect.

Until the postwar era, Norway’s per capita gross domestic product--that is, the amount of economic activity generated per person--was about half that of the United States, according to the Maddison Project Database, which compiles and adjusts historical economic data. For much of that time, Norway’s GDP consistently ranked in the bottom half of European countries in the data set.

During that time of intense immigration, researchers have found, Norwegians were far from the model they might appear to be today. For decades after their arrival, they lagged behind other groups.

In a 2014 paper that first came to my attention in a series of tweets from Cato Institute analyst Alex Nowrasteh, Boustan and her colleagues, economists Ran Abramitzky of Stanford University and Katherine Eriksson (now of the University of California at Davis) used recently available data to combine census data and genealogical records for immigrants from 16 European countries and regions from 1900 to 1920.

In this way, they were able to correct for the “data illusions” that had distorted previous research. A single census could show that immigrants who had been here 30 years earn as much as natives, while those here fewer than five earn only half as much. This might lead an economist to think that it takes 30 years for an immigrant to assimilate. In fact, it’s much more likely that the immigrants of 30 years prior tended to be from higher-earning professions and the recent immigrants were from lower-earning ones, which would distort the sample.

They found that Norwegians, based on their mostly rural, low-income occupations such as farming, fishing and logging, arrived in the United States with the lowest earning potential of any national group. Even after 30 years in the country, the authors found, Norwegians had failed to find higher-paying work and close the gap with either native earners or most other European immigrants.

By that same measure, even second-generation Norwegian Americans (black bars) had failed to assimilate and move into higher-paying occupations than their immigrant parents.

That’s not a critique of people from Norway, or of farmers and lumberjacks in general. Instead, it’s evidence that assimilation is a difficult and gradual process. It takes generations, perhaps a long as a century, to catch up to the native population. Boustan said that, on the whole, the immigrants of today look to be on a path similar to that followed by Norwegians and others in their study.

And in the current era, Norwegian Americans are doing well. But perhaps not as well as those in Norway, with a boost from their careful stewardship of natural wealth such as North Sea crude and hydropower, enjoy high levels of income and health status, and other scores of quality of life.

Remember how their GDP, adjusted for population, used to be half that of the United States? Now the chart has almost flipped.

Norwegians have it so well today that, the president’s entreaties aside, they don’t even bother coming to America any more. Based on the most recent detailed numbers available from the Census Bureau, which has enough data to track migrants from more than 100 countries, the 25,300 Norwegian-born people living in the U.S. are the third smallest group it can measure, in raw-number terms.

Many countries above it on the list are smaller in terms of population. The only two below it on the list are Latvia, which has about one-third of Norway’s population of 5.3 million, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which is nearly 50 times smaller.

According to a tweet from Statistics Norway (via Reuters), just 502 Norwegians moved to the United States in 2016, down 59 from the year before. An entire generation of Norwegians have, through their immigration decisions, made it clear where they prefer to live.