Migrations and Cultures - by Thomas Sowell (Paperback)

About the Book

Most commentators look at the issue of immigration from the viewpoint of immediate politics. In doing so, they focus on only a piece of the issue and lose touch with the larger picture. In "Migrations and Cultures", Thomas Sowell shows the persistence of cultural traits in particular racial and ethnic groups and the role these groups' relocations play in redistributing skills, knowledge, and other forms of "human capital".

Book Synopsis

Most commentators look at the issue of immigration from the viewpoint of immediate politics. In doing so, they focus on only a piece of the issue and lose touch with the larger picture. Now Thomas Sowell offers a sweeping historical and global look at a large number of migrations over a long period of time. Migrations and Cultures: shows the persistence of cultural traits, in particular racial and ethnic groups, and the role these groups' relocations play in redistributing skills, knowledge, and other forms of "human capital." answers the question: What are the effects of disseminating the patterns of the particular set of skills, attitudes, and lifestyles each ethnic group has carried forth--both for the immigrants and for the host countries, in social as well as economic terms?

Review Quotes

"Migrations and Cultures forcibly brings home the lesson that, although from the point of view of economic development there may be better and worse immigrant groups, it is misguided to talk of immigration itself in the abstract, as if it were always a good, or always a bad, thing.... Although Sowell himself is never deterministic on the subject, he shows throughout that because immigration is rooted in human nature, it is subject to its own set of eternal verities. Migrations and Cultures is deeply instructive in acquainting us with some of them."--Commentary Magazine

"Interesting insights abound in this study.... Sowell's treatment is so comprehensive and detailed, with a plethora of footnotes on almost every page, that his book will be of particular interest to specialists."--Publishers Weekly

"Sowell makes several observations about immigration important to the historical record and that remain relevant today."--Forbes

"This is a lively and provocative book that is important reading for anyone who thinks we have too many immigrants or too few, who favors affirmative action and multicultural programs or opposes them... Deflates any windbag oratory about the United States being a unique land of opportunity, where migrants succeed by discarding their former culture and leaping naked into the great melting pot."--New York Times

"Thomas Sowell has done it again... This is a vital contribution to a debate that has been framed far too narrowly."--Donald L. Horowitz, professor emeritus, Duke Law School

"Thomas Sowell is not only one of the most prolific intellectuals writing today, he remains one of the most insightful.... Tracing the history of six migrant groups--Chinese, Japanese, Germans, Italians, Jews, and Indians--Sowell explains the contributions each has made to the countries where they settled or sojourned, enriching those nations in the process of helping themselves. While some social scientists battle endlessly over whether racism or race itself explains differences in achievement between groups, Sowell offers a more subtle and convincing argument for the importance of skills."--Linda Chavez, president, Center for Equal Opportunity

"Thomas Sowell is one of the wonders of the American intellectual world.... Not only is this book crammed with detailed research that even experts will find instructive, but it is willing to look unflinchingly at evidence that suggests migration can be bad as well as good--and even that the era of mass migration may be drawing to a close."--Peter Brimelow, author of Alien Nation

About the Author

Thomas Sowell is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. For more than half a century, his writings have appeared in both popular and scholarly publications, on both sides of the Atlantic, and his books have been translated into a dozen foreign languages. After a career as an economist in the government, academia and the corporate world, he has since 1980 been a scholar in residence at the Hoover Institution, devoting his efforts to research and writing, on subjects ranging from the history and influence of intellectuals to education and social policies in countries around the world. His website is www.tsowell.com.