Immigration, Upward Mobility, and the U.S. Economy

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

In eras past, the United States welcomed immigrant laborers to build and support the country's infrastructure and innovators and entrepreneurs to advance its businesses and technology. And yet immigration is a hot-button issue today, with many saying it's a drain on the U.S. economy. Ran Abramitzky, a professor at Stanford University, and Leah Boustan, a professor at Princeton, looked at decades of data to understand the real impact that immigrants and their descendants have on America today. Their findings dispel several modern-day myths and suggest that not just political but also corporate leaders need to push for more rational rhetoric and policies. Abramitzky and Boustan are the authors of "Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success."

Transcript

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0:00.0	So you got the job. Now what? Join me, Eleni Mata, on HBR's new original podcast, New
0:08.1	Here, the Young Professionals Guide to Work, and how to make it work for you. Listen for
0:13.8	free wherever you get your podcasts. Just search New Here. See you there!
0:30.0	Welcome to the HBR idea cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Alison Beard.
0:48.8	The U.S. is a nation of immigrants. Immigration is part of our melting pot
0:53.8	mythology. Historically, it's helped to create the workforces that built our
0:57.5	infrastructure and businesses. It's also given us science and tech innovators from Albert
1:01.9	Einstein to Sergei Brenn. But immigration is a hot button issue nowadays. Not just in
1:06.9	the United States, but in lots of developed countries. Who's trying to come in and why?
1:11.7	Who succeeds? How do immigrants affect cultures and economies? Are they a blessing or a burden?
1:18.1	Our guests today have been investigating these issues for more than two decades. Delving
1:22.0	it to U.S. immigration data, they follow the trajectory of millions of newcomers in their
1:26.0	offspring, and they're with us today to tell us what they found, as well as why it matters
1:30.4	for business leaders.
1:32.6	Ron Abramitsky is an economics professor at Stanford University, and Leo Puston is a professor
1:37.6	of economics at Princeton. Together, they wrote the book Streets of Gold, America's untold
1:42.6	story of immigrant success. Ron, Leo, welcome. Thank you. Great to be here.
1:59.6	So let's get right to it. What exactly did you uncover about immigration in the U.S. that
2:04.9	our listeners might be most surprised by?
2:07.8	We put together this data to see how much of what we think we know about immigration
2:13.0	is true and how much is a myth. And so we asked questions like, is it really true that
2:19.6	immigrants today assimilate any less quickly than past immigrants into the economy and society?
	...

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