Inés Valdez: The imperial origins of “They are taking our jobs”

For you op/ed writers out there. have you ever been surprised by the title that a news outlet has given your commentary.  I sure have.  Political scientist Inés Valdez dropped me a note about such an experience with her commentarey in the Washington Post.  She writes:  “My original title was `The imperial origins of ‘They are taking our jobs” but the Washington Post renamed it with a less than ideal title `Why anti-immigration politics hurts white workers.'”

In any event, Valdez’s commentary is well worth reading.  It begins:

“President Trump is obsessed with `JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!’ But his chants aren’t just about the economy — jobs are also central to advancing Trump’s anti-immigration agenda. He has repeatedly, and inaccurately, promoted the long-standing idea that working-class white Americans are losing jobs because of immigration.

The data doesn’t support this analysis. Yet the potent combination of immigrant threat and labor competition has long appealed to voters even when immigration restriction doesn’t deliver the promised jobs. In reality, what the rhetoric of blaming immigrants for `taking’ jobs does do is advance ideas and policies that protect the powerful and allow for the exploitation of all workers — often the very same workers who find it appealing.”

KJ