Is U.S. Immigration Policy Worse Than It’s Ever Been?
Suketu Mehta and Becca Heller talk President Trump, the real economy of immigration, and getting trolled by Ann Coulter.
As fear over the influx of refugees has risen across Europe and the United States, millions of displaced people are in limbo while governments implement more restrictive immigration policies and grapple with the economic and humanitarian costs of welcoming migrants into their countries. In Foreign Policy’s latest print edition, author Suketu Mehta not only challenges the West's fear of migrants but also argues that it is this fear that destroys democracy in his provocative essay “This Land Is Their Land.” And in this issue’s Final Word piece “What a Just Immigration Policy Doesn’t Look Like,” Becca Heller sounds off on the Trump administration’s travel ban and why immigration policy can’t be expressed in a tweet.
As fear over the influx of refugees has risen across Europe and the United States, millions of displaced people are in limbo while governments implement more restrictive immigration policies and grapple with the economic and humanitarian costs of welcoming migrants into their countries. In Foreign Policy’s latest print edition, author Suketu Mehta not only challenges the West’s fear of migrants but also argues that it is this fear that destroys democracy in his provocative essay “This Land Is Their Land.” And in this issue’s Final Word piece “What a Just Immigration Policy Doesn’t Look Like,” Becca Heller sounds off on the Trump administration’s travel ban and why immigration policy can’t be expressed in a tweet.
On this week’s second episode of The E.R., contributors Suketu and Becca join FP’s Rebecca Frankel and Keith Johnson to discuss their pieces in the September/October 2017 print edition of Foreign Policy. The panel dissects arguments commonly used to advocate closing borders including economic strain and the dilution of shared culture and language. Is there any truth behind these arguments? And who benefits from stoking fear of immigrants and refugees?
Suketu Mehta is the New York-based author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found and an associate professor of journalism at New York University. He is currently working on a nonfiction book about immigrants in contemporary New York. Follow him on Twitter: @suketumehta.
Becca Heller is the director and co-founder of the International Refugee Assistance Project, a visiting clinical lecturer in law at Yale Law School, and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Keith Johnson is FP’s deputy editor for news. Follow him on Twitter: @KFJ_FP.
Rebecca Frankel is the executive editor of Foreign Policy’s print magazine. She is the author of War Dogs: Tales of Canine Heroism, History, and Love, a New York Times bestselling book about canines in combat. Follow her on Twitter: @becksfrankel.
Tune in, now three times a week to FP’s The E.R.
Subscribe to The E.R. and Global Thinkers podcasts on iTunes.
More from Foreign Policy
Can Russia Get Used to Being China’s Little Brother?
The power dynamic between Beijing and Moscow has switched dramatically.
Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World
It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.
It’s a New Great Game. Again.
Across Central Asia, Russia’s brand is tainted by Ukraine, China’s got challenges, and Washington senses another opening.
Iraqi Kurdistan’s House of Cards Is Collapsing
The region once seemed a bright spot in the disorder unleashed by U.S. regime change. Today, things look bleak.
Sign up for Morning Brief
Foreign Policy’s flagship daily newsletter with what’s coming up around the world today. Delivered weekdays.
By submitting your email, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to receive email correspondence from us. You may opt out at any time.
