Yes, it's different this time

Revisiting claims about immigration, and why it's surprising that people find realignment surprising

• battle of the borders, a rap-battle

• it really is different this time—an unprecedented share of the labor force, and getting to work more quickly than before

• entering a new phase of growth by acquihire-only (reprise)

• realignment is already underway, and it’s surprising that anyone is surprised

---

👉👉👉Reminder to sign up for the Weekly Recap only, if daily emails is too much. Find me on twitter, for more fun. 

Apropos of last week’s interview, the good Professor Jones has been featured in a recently-released video on immigration, from Radical Discourse (of the Emergent Order Foundation).

It’s a rap video, and Prof. Jones is a wrestler, and it’s amazing.

Watch the whole thing, but Jones appears at 7:48 if you feel an urge to skip ahead.

They call it the “Random Walk bump.”¹

It really is different this time

Anyways, while we’re (back) on the subject . . .

One of the more annoying yet persistent objections to the Random Walk claim that “immigration really is different this time” is “OK, but is it really different this time?”

Yes, it’s really different this time.

Whether it’s bad or good is an entirely separate question (and, of course, the answer is “both”), but everyone must accept the premise that we are not doing “immigration as usual.”

This is an entirely new and different kind of experiment.

Like, it’s cute (or misleading) that Pew created this chart to create the illusion that the “foreign born” share of the population was peaking:

Pew

The foreign born share of the population is as high as it’s ever been, but it’s tapering off . . . right?

Well, no. Not right.

When can you start?

The foreign born share of of the labor force (which is different than the population) peaked ~3 months ago, back in August:

BofA

At just under 20%, the foreign born share is higher than it’s ever been in the nation’s history, and it has accelerated considerably as of late.

There’s even some evidence that migrants joined the workforce more quickly than ever before (which is consistent with the acceleration of the foreign born share above).