"They Take Our Jobs!": And 20 Other Myths about Immigration (Myths Made in America)

The wonderful title of this immigration book is revealing and enticing. Its argument and assumptions are also revealing and to me much less enticing.The technique of starting with the "myths" about immigration, or any topic, and then exposing that the myths are not grounded in facts is a very good way of writing a persuasive book. The myths that Chomsky chooses to debunk are the ones that are most often heard.* Immigrants drive down wages* Immigrants don't pay taxes* We are being overrun by immigrants* The US has always welcomed immigrants* And seventeen more.Some of the books arguments are very convincingly constructed. She takes the idea "I am not opposed to immigration I'm opposed to illegal immigration." Shows that before 1924 there were no illegal immigrants from Europe because the laws making it illegal hadn't been written yet. She then draws a parallel to the civil right struggle and shows that immigration laws discriminate against brown people. History she concludes will honor people who don't obey discriminatory laws.Her other methods of debunking the myths however will not convince many of the people who now oppose immigration and immigrants. She often fails to put things in historic or relative perspective. For instance she claims that late 19th century US immigration policy regarding Asians was racist but doesn't use any perspective by comparing it to other settler nations policies. But the most important thing to know about "Twenty Myths is that Chomsky sees the world through a Marxist lens. She sees the producers as exploiters, the business organizer as evil and the labor organizer as good. Her book is full of assumptions about the evil intents of business. She writes "In many industries, employers seek to reduce costs by employing the poorest most vulnerable people." The same facts could be written: "In many industries, employers seek to reduce costs by hiring new workers at low wages so that they can offer their customers the low cost goods they demand."Chomsky writes in her conclusion that "High levels of migration are a symptom of a global system that privileges the few at the expense of the many." Would be more accurate if written. For the many high levels of migration are a solution to a global system that privileges the few. Because if migration is allowed people to vote with their feet and go to the places where they feel they can maximize their opportunities.At the same time that I agreed with Chomsky's conclusions I was steaming mad at many of her arguments and interpretations. "They take our Jobs" is a worthwhile read because it presents the arguments from the left in favor of a more humane immigration policy cogently and concisely.

Professor Chomsky of "They Take Our Jobs" posits 21 "myths" about immigration, and then attempts to debunk them. Unfortunately, her cognitive bias, poor logic, and lack of critical thinking eventually undermine her main arguments. This causes the reader to be wary of her other arguments and positions, even though some of them have validity. Her views are clearly clouded by her fixed ideological presumptions about what nation states are and how they should act, by her assumption that all capitalism is bad and necessarily exploitive, and that all workers and poor people are saintly.She provides many references on racism and its effects on immigration and other laws that casual readers may be unaware of. Our nation's founders thought the definition of "citizen" meant white, male, and property owner because that was the social view of the time. We should all be aware of this knowledge because it provides both historical and current evidence that is helpful in understanding views on immigration, legal or illegal. Chomsky also explains the historical aspects of immigration policy in the United States by citing the ever changing regulations that reflected current thought at the time of each change. As other critics have pointed out, however, she fails to put any of this information in historical perspective. She assumes that whatever racist or political considerations on immigration were operative in the past are necessarily operative today without crediting any attitudinal changes that have occurred.The author organizes her book into 21 immigration "myths," but some of them are paper tigers that are only listed to be easily swatted down and others that she not only fails to counter, but actually ends up proving that the "myth" is mostly true. For example, myth #3 is "Unions oppose immigration because it harms the working class." However the entire chapter is devoted to numerous citations proving the anti-immigration policies of all major unions. Only in the final paragraph does she note that the AFL-CIO decided in the 1990's that its own survival as a union required reaching out to immigrant workers and therefore liberalized the union's official position on immigration. Since Chomsky and her more famous father, Noam, are self-professed anarcho-syndicalists (advocates of revolutionary unionism to facilitate worker control of society) this chapter is all the more amazing for what it does not prove.Myth #18, "Countries need to control who goes in and out," gives little discussion to the concept that virtually every country in the world has immigration policies as a function of exactly why a nation exists as a state entity - to control what happens in that geographic area. Chomsky argues the opposite, and thinks immigrants should be allowed to settle wherever and whenever they choose because the only reason anyone immigrates at all is due to poverty in their home country as a result of being exploited by First World (developed) countries. She dismisses immigration by foreign terrorists because "most historical acts of terror in the US has been by environmental extremists."Myth #4, "Immigrants don't pay taxes," and Myth #5, "Immigrants are a drain on the economy," are connected. Of course immigrants, even illegal ones, pay some taxes. And, there is no doubt that recent illegal immigrants are a great utilizer of social services (even though Chomsky tries to hide this fact by combining service utilization of ALL immigrants). By the author's own statistics, however illegal immigrants' taxes only cover about 75% of the cost of social services, especially those provided by the states. And those social service costs don't include the common costs of libraries, parks, schools, and other taxpayer funded services. If they were included, the economic burden of illegal immigrants would be much greater. Chomsky cites a couple of state studies on the economic costs of illegal immigration, but says absolutely nothing about the statistics from the economiclly hardest hit states of the southwest and Florida. Economic effects of immigration are not uniform for all states. Again, cognitive bias (exclude all information that runs counter to your argument).One could go on and on with academic criticism of this book. Chomsky's assumptions that all Anglo-Saxon culture is racist and exploitive, that our goal should be global economic equity, that all immigration stems from lack of economic equity due to exploitation by the developed world, and that all illegal immigrants should have full rights of citizenship in the country they immigrate to, exposes her admittedly Marxist-type view and ends up undermining even her legitimate points.I would instead recommend the book "Arguing Immigration" as a more balanced view on the immigration debate, forsaking the usual liberal-conservative fixed positions on the issue.

This was a great book. I was hooked from the first page and although I got this book just to see what other people were righting on the subject, I was surprised to learn so many things other researchers don't delve into. Racism is something people like to shy away from, or when they do discuss it, they use vague and delicate terms so as not to offend anyone. Racism often cuts a little too close to home for many people, and authors usually don't wish to offend their readers. This book attacks racism with historical proof and the insight that hundreds of years worth of experience, and the paper trail to prove it can give someone, if they're willing to take the incredible amounts of time to sift through the mountains of information there is to be examined. Aviva is a thorough researcher and knows how to present her findings to make the subject both informative and moving. My eyes have been opened to a greater vocabulary needed in the conversation that is our immigration legacy.

Wouldn’t be a book by a Chomsky if it didn’t have stuff I liked (statistics and hard truths about America’s deplorable history on race) and stuff I didn’t (neoliberalism!!!). But she is all in all on the side of the angels here.

Bought this book for an undergraduate book project. I put the assignment off until 1 week before it was due and reluctantly picked up the book. However, once I picked it up I was unable to put it down. Aviva Chomsky really highlights the current issues people take with illegal immigration and offers some very interesting counter-arguments. While I didn't agree with everything she had to say, I did find this book to be an excellent read and a way to look at things from another perspective. I highly recommend reading this.

Was great to read another (educated) view point on immigration other than what we are fed by the media.