| | | | Actually, Africa Is Sending Some of Its Best and Brightest | | President Trump's alleged complaints about immigration from "shithole countries," including from the African continent (the President denied using the term, a Democratic senator at the meeting suggested he did), miss something important, argues Tyler Cowen for Bloomberg View. African immigrants to the United States are, overall, highly educated.
"If we consider adults age 25 or older, born in Africa and living in the US, 41.7 [percent] of them have a bachelor's degree or more, according to 2009 data. For contrast, the native-born population has a bachelor's degree or more at the much lower rate of only 28.1 percent in these estimates, and foreign-born adults as a whole have a college degree at the rate of 26.8 percent, both well below the African rate," Cowen says.
"How about high school degrees? About one-third of immigrants overall lack this credential, but only 11.7 percent of African-born migrants don't have a high school degree. That's remarkably close to the rate for native-born Americans, estimated at 11.4 percent.
"Or consider Nigerian-Americans, Nigeria being the most populous nation in Africa. Their education levels are among the very highest in the US, above those of Asians, with 17 percent of Nigerian migrants having a master's degree." - Norway to US: We're just not that into you? Trump allegedly expressed a preference for immigrants from Norway in Thursday's meeting on immigration. The problem? Norwegians aren't really interested in coming here, suggests Krishnadev Calamur in The Atlantic.
"Norway is the world's happiest country (the US ranks 14), the place with the most political freedom (the US ranks 45), most press freedom (the U.S. ranks 43rd), and most prosperity (the US ranks 18). Simply put, there's little economic incentive for Norwegians to immigrate to the US.
"That's true not just of Norway, but of all Western European countries that have become more prosperous over the past several decades. European immigration to the US has fallen dramatically, and the place of European immigrants have been taken by those from Asia, Latin America, and Africa." - Fareed digs further into the immigration issue -- and President Trump's alleged remarks – on GPS this Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on CNN. Joining Fareed are David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, and Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
| | Fareed: What Bannon Got Right | | The furor over Michael Wolff's book "Fire and Fury" masks "an important political development, one that explains the real rift between President Trump and his former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon," Fareed writes in his latest Washington Post column. "Trump seems to have abandoned populism."
In the primaries, Trump "distinguished himself by taking on the most hard-line positions, thus winning over the GOP base. That, in addition to his colorful, charismatic style, created a bond between him and a new bulwark of the Republican Party, the white working class, that appears, for now, unbreakable.
"I don't agree with many of Bannon's proposals, but he was surely right in recognizing the populist fury that runs through a large swath of the country. One wonders what will happen to it as time passes and Trump's voters notice that they have ended up with something quite different than they had imagined. During the presidential transition, Bannon told Wolff that the Trump era would be like America in the 1930s, with a massive public works program that would get blue-collar workers back into shipyards, mills and mines. Instead we appear to have a return to the 1920s, an era of unrestrained capitalism, giddy market exuberance, a shrunken state and dramatically rising inequality. Is this what the laid-off steelworker in Ohio voted for?"
| | Trump "Bluffs and Retreats" on Iran | | President Trump's decision Friday not to completely upend the Iran nuclear deal by waiving sanctions was too little, too late, suggests Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post. And it has left America isolated.
Trump's top national security advisers "urged he remain in the deal. We would not have the support of the Europeans, they explained. We would lose leverage to compel Iran to change its behavior on non-nuclear issues such as human rights and missile tests," Rubin writes.
"Trump had no card to play, so backed himself away from the ledge, although not without a threat to make this the last time he would waive sanctions. This is approaching President Barack Obama's red line debacle in Syria. Trump has now demonstrated that he doesn't say what he means. He bluffs and retreats.
"All this episode has done is diminish Trump's credibility, unnecessarily so. He could then and he can now negotiate with Congress and our allies for a comprehensive package to sanction Iran for human rights violations, missile tests, state support of terrorism and regional aggression. But who would follow this guy into negotiations now — and why would Iran make a deal with someone who never has a bottom line?"
| | The Future of the West as We Know It Depends on Poland | | Europe has become the last line of defense for republican values. But if the European Union hopes to stop a rot from within, it needs to get tough with a member that is descending into illiberalism, suggests Charles Kupchan for The New York Times: Poland.
"Since coming to power in 2015, Poland's populist government has sought to control the news media, purged and politicized the civil service, and intimidated intellectuals and civil society organizations. Three weeks ago, Poland's president signed into law legislation that compromises judicial independence, effectively clearing the way for the ruling Law and Justice party to stack the courts," Kupchan writes.
"Poland's trajectory is not unique within the bloc. Hungary has already gone down a similar path, and other member states in Central Europe are tilting in the same direction. But Poland's descent is particularly consequential: With a population of almost 40 million, it is Central Europe's standard-bearer."
"[T]he European Union can no longer afford to treat wayward members with kid gloves. If Poland does not reverse course, Brussels should proceed with efforts to suspend its voting rights. This requires consent from all but the sanctioned party, but even if Hungary blocks these moves, the effort itself will send a strong message to Poles."
"With the United States missing in action, it is up to the European Union to defend the principles and practices of democratic society. The fate of Poland, Europe and the West is on the line."
| | India Is Missing Something Important | | India is expected to overtake China as the world's most populous nation in less than a decade. But it is missing something crucial if it hopes to match Chinese economic progress, The Economist suggests: A middle class commensurate with its massive size.
"The top 1 percent of Indian adults, a rich enclave of 8 million inhabitants making at least $20,000 a year, equates to roughly Hong Kong in terms of population and average income," The Economist says. "The next 9 percent is akin to central Europe, in the middle of the global wealth pack. The next 40 percent of India's population neatly mirrors its combined South Asian poor neighbors, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The remaining half-billion or so are on a par with the most destitute bits of Africa. To be sure, global companies take the markets of central Europe seriously. Plenty of fortunes have been made there. But they are no China."
"Worse, the chances of India developing a middle class to match the Middle Kingdom's are being throttled by growing inequality. The top 1 percent of earners pocketed nearly a third of all the extra income generated by economic growth between 1980 and 2014, according to new research from economists including Thomas Piketty." | | | | | | |
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