Expertise Disclaimed

Eugene Volokh writes:

I rarely blog about immigration-related matters, because I have no expertise on the subject, and because I think this is the sort of subject that it`s hard to make bottom-line conclusions about without real expertise There are lots of considerations cutting in various directions, and I have no real sense of how to estimate the magnitude of each, much less compare them.[The Volokh Conspiracy – Jobs Americans Won`t Do:]

My first reaction is of course to say “Thank you,” on behalf of our group of immigration experts at VDare.com. (I don`t count myself as an expert, here.)There are thousands of pundits out there who don`t know what they don`t know, but are willing to go on record as saying thing like “Our economy depends on immigrant labor.”

Of course, if we all started refusing to talk about what we don`t know about, it might bring an end, not only to blogging, but to journalism as we know it.

In any case, what he has to say is quite sensible; a point that we`ve made here, that people who argue that immigrants do the jobs Americans “won`t do,” are really arguing that

Illegal immigrants just do the jobs Americans won`t do for the same low wages that illegal immigrants will take, and it helps our economy to have the jobs done at those low wages.

Which doesn`t, as he says, “have the same ring” as ” jobs Americans won`t do.”