Tyler Cowen on Immigration

Economist Tyler Cowen has an interesting article in the New York Times today on immigration. He bring up an interesting issue with current immigration. Although the benefits outweigh the costs, it can be made better (and more acceptable) if we decrease the education gap.

"A high school diploma brings higher wages in Mexico, but in the United States the more educated migrants do not earn noticeably more than those who have less education. Education does not much raise the productivity of hard physical labor. The result is that the least educated Mexicans have the most reason to cross the border. In addition, many Mexicans, knowing they may someday go to the United States, see less reason to invest in education"

One solution he offers is to combine tighter border security with an increase in legal immigration , and require more education.