Migrations and Cultures
“Deflates any windbag oratory about the United States being a unique land of opportunity, where migrants succeed by discarding their former culture and leaping naked into the great melting pot…This is a lively and provocative book that is important reading for anyone who thinks we have too many immigrants or too few, who favors affirmative action and multicultural programs or opposes them.”
New York Times Book Review
Bestselling author Thomas Sowell brings his insight and erudition to bear on one of the key issues of our time-immigration-supplying context, insight, and reason to an inflamed debate that could very well dissolve the social fabric of our country.
Most commentators look at the issue of immigration from the viewpoint of immediate politics. In doing so, they focus on only a piece of the issue and lose touch with the larger picture. Now Thomas Sowell offers a sweeping historical and global look at a large number of migrations over a long period of time.Migrations and Culturesshows the persistence of cultural traits in particular racial and ethnic groups, and the role these groups' relocations play in redistributing skills, knowledge, and other forms of "human capital." This book answers the question: What are the effects of disseminating the patterns of the particular set of skills, attitudes, and lifestyles each ethnic group has carried forth-both for the immigrants and for the host countries, in social as well as economic terms?
Praise