John Miller’s “Between the Covers” program on NRO Radio this week is an interesting interview with William Julius Wilson on his new book More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City. Wilson talks about things that liberals usually recoil from, like problematic cultural practices among inner-city blacks and school choice (he backs public school choice because he says the data’s proven that it works, and he’d support private school choice as well if it’s shown to actually do some good).
But there’s one line that even Wilson won’t cross. John asks whether immigration “contributes to the plight of poor urban blacks” and Wilson clearly states what his research has long shown — employers prefer low-skilled immigrants over low-skilled black Americans: “Low-skilled blacks are competing with immigrants for these low-skilled jobs.” Then John asks the obvious follow-up: “Would restricting immigration help?” And here Wilson steps back from the abyss: “Would restricting immigration help? I, I’m not going to take a position on, on, on that. What I can say is, is that, uh, uhm, programs that are designed to, uh, enhance the opportunities of all low-skilled workers is what, what, what we should be looking at.”
I don’t want to pick on Professor Wilson — he’s a genuine scholar who’s willing to depart in some respects from the academic party line. But there is, if you will, the outer party line and the inner party line. Wilson feels free to tell a reporter for National Review that he’d support vouchers for private schools if research definitively shows their utility. But when his own research shows that immigration harms inner-city blacks, he recoils from the obvious conclusion. On the Left, open borders is the only immutable value.