The Immigrant Superpower: How Brains, Brawn, and Bravery Make America Stronger by Tim Kane

Abstract

In 1951, Handlin began his Pulitzer Prize-winning volume, The Uprooted, by centering the role of immigration in the history of the United States: “Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history.”1 Kane now makes an equally bold claim in The Immigrant Superpower, contending that the greatness and prosperity characterizing the American past and present are the products of immigration more than of any other factors.The subtitle of Kane’s volume was chosen with far more than alliteration in mind. In Kane’s view, newcomers’ “brawn” yielded economic dividends derived from their labor. Their “bravery” translated into patriotism and contributed to the military strength and security of the United States, and their “brains” fueled the innovation that has made the United States a model for every nation aspiring to world leadership.Kane’s book is a history but also unabashedly a work of advocacy. Conservative politically, Kane does not hesitate to criticize those Republicans, including Donald Trump, who push for a restrictive approach to immigration. Kane views immigration as an essential ingredient in preserving this country’s dominant place in the world order. He views immigration as both “central to American identity” and a “force multiplier,” essential to the grand strategy that today makes the United States “a dominant superpower,” capable of fending off foreign threats such as a “technologically surging China” (7, 10). Although seasoned with colorful anecdotes, Kane’s evidence is grounded in a carefully constructed quantitative analysis of economic data. What emerges is a portrait of how immigrants have enriched the United States with a “demographic vibrancy” expressed in their physical strength and vitality, their commitment to serving their country patriotically in the military, and the brainpower they contributed to their adopted home, evidenced by the number of patents acquired, companies started, and prestigious awards won in science and medicine (11).According to Kane, immigration advocacy has also proven to be the key to political success for American presidents. He counts Presidents Washington, Lincoln, Wilson, Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan, and George W. Bush as successful presidents because they advocated opening America’s doors to the foreign-born, while rejecting the criticisms of nativists. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency is clearly not among Kane’s favorites. Kane reminds readers of President Roosevelt’s “shameful turning away of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution” (66). In contrast, he praises President Truman who “encouraged the country to ‘fulfill our responsibilities to these suffering and homeless refugees of all faiths’” (90).Kane finds immigration advantageous at both the microeconomic and macroeconomic levels of analysis. His microeconomic perspective on immigration suggests that the local impact of immigration on the job market is mixed and not nearly as disruptive to less privileged Americans as some critics, such as Borjas, have sometimes claimed.2 He finds the macroeconomic effect of immigration even more positive because in an open economy immigration contributes to efficiency and productivity.Kane also addresses critics who charge that newcomers from abroad pose a threat to the culture of the American people. Nativists see in the nation’s increasing cultural diversity a threat best neutralized by exclusion. Kane, however, sees cultural diversity as an American strength that was present from the earliest days of the country’s history. He deplores the contemporary conflating of immigration and racial-identity politics, focusing instead upon “the common unity of ideas embodied in [the United States’] founding documents,” such as the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (13).At times, Kane’s pro-immigration argument seems unrelentingly positive. His focus on the long-term benefits of immigration causes him to pay scant attention to its short-term burdens on local communities. Therefore, he does not adequately address immigration reform from the perspective of redistributing the immediate costs of settling newcomers into homes, jobs, and schools.Kane’s abundant evidence in support of immigration’s importance in shaping America’s strength and prosperity throughout its history fuels a persuasive argument that will engage scholars in think tanks and classrooms. It will also stoke the fire of an already heated contemporary debate about current policies.