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questions 5

1. According to these graphs, what is the major change in views since 1994 about whether
immigrants burden or strengthen the U.S.?
2. At what point do the views become most similar? What might account for that congruence? Austan Goolsbee

3. How might you account for the wide difference in 2019?

4. Between 2006 and 2018, what is the overall shift in attitude toward immigrants’ willingness
to adapt to the American way of life? To what extent does this data clash with the other graph?
5. What events or forces might account for the most significant shift in perception toward

immigrants’ contributions and willingness to adapt to American culture in the last decade?

eaten U.S. Economy and Innovation
7 7 Sharp Cuts in Immigration Threaten U.S. Economy and Innovation
Sharp Cuts in Immigration Thr
Austan Goolsbee
Austan Goolsbee (b. 1969) is an American economist who is currently the Robert P. Gwinn
Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He was a
Fulbright Scholar, and was named one of the 100 Global leaders for Tomorrow by the World
Economic Forum. From 2009 to 2011, Goolsbee served as a member of President Barack
Obama’s cabinet. The following op-ed was published by the New York Times in 2019.
The long-run health of the United States economy is in serious danger from a self-inflicted
wound: the Trump administration’s big cuts in immigration.
The latest data indicate that immigration to the United States fell 70 percent last year to
only 200,000 people — the lowest level in more than a decade. Major causes of the decline,
experts say, are the administration’s restrictions as well as the unwelcoming tone set by the
president himself.
On top of this, the White House has announced that the United States will accept only
18,000 refugees in the coming year, down from the current limit of 30,000 and a small fraction
of the 110,000 President Barack Obama said should be allowed into the United States in 2016.
The Trump administration may find the falling immigration numbers a cause for
celebration. But, more than any drop in the stock market or fall in manufacturing sentiment
or consumer confidence, they present the scariest economic news we have seen in some
time. The impact of low immigration on the American economy will be profoundly negative,
both now and in the future.
The first reason is the simplest. The growth rate of the economy comes from two parts: 5
income growth per capita and population growth.
Birthrates generally plunge when countries get rich. Scholars debate the causes, but the
inescapable fact of fewer babies results in an aging population in advanced economies. And
the overall population is already shrinking, or will soon most likely be, in Japan, China, South
Korea and much of Europe.
But that hasn’t been happening in the United States, at least not until now. Yes, the
country is aging, and the baby boomers are retiring. But its population is expected to

Immigration and the American Dream CONVERSATION
85
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