Immigration has long been described as simply a net positive, and debated solely in economic terms – like jobs, wages, and GDP.
But after decades of immigration from different parts of the world – with newcomers now making up increasingly large shares of the population in Canada, the United States, and other Western countries – people are starting to ask different questions. How does migration shape culture and trust? What impact does it have on social cohesion over time?
To share his research on these issues, Garett Jones, an economics professor at George Mason University, joins Inside Policy Talks. Jones, author of The Culture Transplant, argues that migrants carry durable cultural attitudes like trust, saving patterns, and views of government that can persist across generations and shape the institutions and societies they move to.
On the podcast, he tells Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, that “full assimilation is a myth.”
“The idea that you just land in a country, and the new land transforms immigrants or their children to become basically just like everyone else around there, is totally false,” says Jones.
He says that’s why when it comes to choosing who to admit as immigrants, “you better shop wisely, if you’re going to make your country as good as possible.”
