"Mexican Mediocrity"

05 Jun 2007 04:48 pm

I'm often denounced for drawing attention to the salience of race and ethnicity to immigration policy. Under an ideal immigration system - limited numbers of legal immigrants chosen for their high human capital rather than for family connections - race and ethnicity would be much less relevant a question. India, for example, is not high IQ region on the whole. If we imported millions of random Indians we would have trouble. But, because Indian immigrants tend to be selected for skills, assimilation into middle class America is less of a problem for them.

Leaving the race question out of it entirely (as I think we should), I do think that not enough attention has been paid to the altogether welcome move in the current immigration bill to put brains and talent before family connections in determining who gets to become an American. It's long overdue.

A reader comments:

Even though Steve sometimes has some good points, they are often so completely commingled with quasi-racist dreck that he's painful to read. And the comments on the post that you linked to make me want to take a long shower...

Me too.

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