EuroWire March 2018

Transatlantic cable

that his country could accept more African immigrants with mutual benefit. On a personal note, the economics professor said that sub-Saharan Africa is the region where he himself has encountered the least anti-American sentiment. Moreover, as a resident of a suburb of Washington DC, he lives alongside an especially high number and proportion of African immigrants. It is, he said, well known in the area that African immigration outcomes in terms of education, starting new businesses, safety and assimilation “are quite positive.” † In short, Dr Cowen argues persuasively, Mr Trump’s recurring complaint in his speeches and news conferences that “they’re not sending us their best people” is not only offensive – it is outright mistaken. Can the USA – 72 per cent of whose citizens worry about being automated out of their jobs – learn from Sweden’s love-fest with its robots? No one knows how many jobs are threatened by robots and other forms of automation. But Peter S Goodman of the New York Times probably got no argument when he wrote that projections suggest a potential shock. A 2016 study cited by Mr Goodman, from the World Economic Forum, surveyed 15 major economies that collectively hold two-thirds of the global work force – about 1.86 billion workers – and concluded that the rise of robots and artificial intelligence will destroy a net The coming jobs crisis

data actually tell us,” about African migrants in particular. “One of the most striking facts about immigration to the US, unbeknownst even to many immigration advocates, is the superior education of Africans coming to this country,” wrote Dr Cowen. (“Africa Is Sending Us Its Best and Brightest,” 12 th January.) Citing 2009 data, the latest available on the education levels of arrivals to America, Dr Cowen reported that – of adults aged 25 or above, born in Africa and living in the USA – 41.7 per cent hold at least a bachelor’s degree. Native-born Americans reached the same level of education at the much lower estimated rate of 28.1 per cent, and foreign-born Americans account for 26.8 per cent of college graduates – both well below the African rate. Dropping down a level, Dr Cowen reported that only about one-third of immigrants to the USA overall have completed a high school education – but that only 11.7 per cent of African-born immigrants are not high school graduates. He notes: “That’s remarkably close to the rate for native-born Americans, estimated at 11.4 per cent.” Turning his attention to graduate degrees, Dr Cowen encountered education levels in Nigerian-Americans that are among the very highest in the USA, and above those of Asian-Americans. Some 17 per cent of immigrants to the USA from Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, have a master’s degree. † Of African immigrants to the USA in general, Dr Cowen further reported that about three-quarters speak English, and they have higher-than-average rates of labour force participation. They are also much less likely to commit violent crimes than individuals born in the USA. The demographics on this desirable cohort, he suggests, imply

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March 2018