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All right. Today we are joined by Zeke Hernandez,
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an author and professor at Wharton.
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Zeke. Can you hear us?
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Good to be with you.
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Hi, welcome. Thank you.
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Thanks for inviting me.
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So we're gonna be talking about your book,
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your new book, The Truth About Immigration.
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Why did you decide to write this book now?
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Well, actually, I wrote it because we're at a historic
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moment exactly 100 years ago in May of 1924 the US passed
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its most restrictive immigration law in history and it blocked the entry
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of all Asians, all basically all Southern and eastern Europeans.
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And back then, the concerns that America had about those newcomers
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were the same concerns that we're seeing in the news today about
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Latin Americans and Asians worries that they steal our jobs that they
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undermine our culture, that they do a lot of damage.
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And the political moment is such that we could make the
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same mistake we made back then.
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We know that that restrictive law hurt America's economy in her America's
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leadership, America's safety.
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And so it's important to tell the truth about what immigration really
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does for us. That it's a net positive economically and socially
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That's what the book is about.
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It tells the evidence of those things and it,
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and it does so with a lot of stories that are relatable
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for everyone. So I feel you kind of touched on it
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But what's the biggest myth about immigration and the economy?
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Do you mind diving deeper into that?
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Yeah. The biggest myth is that an immigrant and a native
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are essentially identical economically and therefore they compete with each other,
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right? So then people,
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then you think immigrants want the same jobs as natives,
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do, they bring the same skills,
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they have the same ideas,
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they consume the same products,
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they start the same kind of companies and and therefore if one
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is a substitute for the other,
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there's just a zero sum competition.
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The reality is that immigrants and natives are different enough economically that
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they want different jobs,
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they bring different skills,
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they consume different products.
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And that makes both immigrants and natives better off economically.
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And is there one story in your research that really struck a
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chord with you? on the economic side,
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one story that really stood out to me,
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many of your viewers might know the story of Pollo Campero,
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the Central American fast food chicken chain.
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But Pollo Campero has expanded aggressively in the US and continues to
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grow because it's been attracted by Central American immigrants and Latinos
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immigrants, right? And So,
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of course, that helps satisfy the craving for Pollo Campero.
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But along the way that company has brought in a lot of
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investment and created a lot of jobs that aren't just for the
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immigrant community. They're for everybody.
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This is what I call the immigration investment jobs triangle,
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right? And it's the basis for a lot of the economic
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gains that immigrants bring.
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So I tell that story and it's just,
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it's just a surprising story for me and for many people,
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and I tell the story of my barber,
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the guy who cuts my hair,
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he's he's from Latin America.
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and he's an undocumented immigrant and he's really,
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really good. He's actually won a lot of awards and
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one day he was cutting my hair and I almost fell off
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my chair because he said,
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I've always dreamed of opening my own barbershop.
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I have $200,000 in cash,
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$200,000 ready to invest in my own business.
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holy cow. This guy has a ton of money ready to
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invest, but he can't do that because of some of the
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limitations from living undocumented in America.
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And so the great tragedy of undocumented immigration is really that it
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limits the contributions that foreigners can make in this country.
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Yeah. Thank you so much,
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Zeke. We really appreciate you breaking it down for us.
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And when is the book out?
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And where can we follow you.
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The book is out June 4th.
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It's already available for sale.
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You can buy it anywhere you buy books.
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Follow me on every major social media platform,
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Twitter, Instagram, tiktok,
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et cetera. I'm Prof Zek Pr Ofzeke Prof ZK on all
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those platforms. Thank you.
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All right. Thanks for your time.
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