Immigrants Are Key to a Job-Rich Economy

European Straits #52

Dear all,

I’ve already discussed immigration in a of this newsletter. But in light of Donald Trump’s recent racist comments and subsequent discussions, I think it’s worth emphasizing a very simple point: educated immigrants are an easy sell, but less educated immigrants are just as critical to a nation’s prosperity—and history and economics provide us with the reasons why.

Clayton Christensen became famous following his first book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, which was published in 1997. The book is really about large dominant firms. In theory, those have everything they need to succeed and maintain their edge under any circumstances. But in practice, whenever there’s a techno-economic transition, they are always bested by new entrants using technology to impose disruptive innovation. The reason (what Christensen calls the “dilemma”) is well known: it’s almost impossible to dominate the new world if you’ve dominated the old.

The same is true for countries: techno-economic transitions reshuf…