New Book, "Streets of Gold," Busts Myths About Immigration

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For centuries, America has lured millions of immigrants here with dreams of rising from rags to riches in a short amount of time. But the authors of “Streets of Gold: America’s Untold Story of Immigrant Success,” say that story is mostly a myth. The authors, Stanford professor Ran Abramitzky and Princeton professor Leah Boustan bust other popular opinions about immigration, such as the idea that immigrants “take all the jobs,” “refuse to assimilate,” and pose all kinds of threats to the “American way of life.” Abramitzky and Boustan spent years combing through data that painted different narratives than most Americans are used to hearing. They will join us to bust myths about immigrants and share what the research really says about immigration, past and present. Guests: Leah Boustan, professor of economics and director of the Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University Ran Abramitzky, professor of economics and Senior Associate Dean for the Social Sciences, Stanford University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for KQIWID podcasts comes from Rancho LaPuerta, a wellness resort 45 minutes from San Diego.
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0:57.7	From KQED.
1:00.4	From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:13.7	There have been two huge waves of immigration to the United States.
1:17.4	First in the years around 1900, massive numbers of Europeans came over, settling into the
1:22.3	cities of the East and Midwest.
1:24.4	Then, in the late 20th century, another wave of immigration crested, this time mostly
1:28.6	people from Latin America and Asia, and this time with much more restrictive laws. And yet,
1:34.3	a new book, Streets of Gold, argues that there are surprising, almost shocking similarities between
1:39.4	immigrants then and immigrants now. And not just that both groups like to claim they showed up with $20 in
1:45.9	their pockets and made their own way, but also that the children of immigrants really do prosper.
1:51.3	We talk about the new data on immigration after this news. From KQD in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
2:05.6	The authors of Streets of Gold want to rebuild the story of immigration to America from the ground up,
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