Last Night’s Daily Show

Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International appeared on the Daily Show last night. I admit, I am incapable of staying up for the 11pm show — I’ve been watching the 8pm re-run today.

Zakaria and Stewart engaged in a highly entertaining discussion about the current immigration debates. Zacaria took the position that amnesty (a word that seems to be triggering a violent allergic reaction on the Hill) was a sensible solution in 1986 and bemoaned the current obsession with harsh criminal penalties and temporary guest worker programs. Overall, he noted the irony of the fact that, while we ignore French solutions to most social issues, on immigration, we seemed to be looking to France for answers. Yet, in Zakaria’s view, the European style policy of stingy temporary guest worker policies and strictly enforced deportation laws are precisely what led to the creation of a disaffected (rioting) immigrant class, which he contrasted to productive, working immigrants in the U.S. Although the discussion was necessarily brief, glib and imperfect, it provided some interesting fodder for thinking comparatively about immigration policy.

-jmc