Biology, Immigration, and Public Policy

Abstract

Summary This paper discusses recent scientific research that has shifted the terms of the debate about the respective roles of nature and nurture in shaping behavior. The research includes literature in the areas of biology, psychometrics, evolutionary psychology, and behavioral genetics. The paper then shows the relevance of this literature for ongoing concerns about mass immigration in developed countries. The literature has implications not only for the personal success of the immigrants, but rates of social dependency and the outlook for political and social cooperation in increasingly diverse societies. Efforts to remediate IQ deficits or behavioral problems in some immigrant groups are seen to be problematic.

Cognitive capital, good governance, and the wealth of nations

“…Genes and evolutionary history appear to have effects at the cross-country level (Ashraf & Galor, 2013;Christainsen, 2012;Meisenberg & Woodley, 2013;Putterman & Weil, 2010;Spolaore & Wacziarg, 2013;Woodley, Rindermann, Bell, Stratford, & Piffer, 2014), but no concrete geneability-relationships applicable to cross-country analyses have yet been found. 16 Thus, their explanatory value (as compared to their statistical one) is small.…”

Racial IQ Differences among Transracial Adoptees: Fact or Artifact?

“…It follows that transracial adoption studies are unlikely to conclusively settle the race and IQ debate, since commentators may always level the valid methodological objection of unrepresentative sampling. It is nonetheless worthwhile to correct misleading claims about transracial adoptee IQ data, which are still made: see Christainsen’s remark that “East Asians growing up in white households in the US and Belgium have tended to score considerably above the white mean in terms of intelligence” [43] (p. 168). (Christainsen wrote next that “East Asians, or at least the Chinese among them, also tend to be relatively quiescent independently of their child-rearing environment and also have less variable heart rates (Kagan, Resnick, [sic] and Snidman 1988)”.…”

Does Diversity Undermine the Welfare State? Evidence from the Provision of Local Public Services in European Regions

“…In fact, the rising negative perception about migrants in Europe is driven by concerns that foreigners abuse welfare (Boeri , ). Provided that intra‐EU mobility is a cornerstone of the integration process, the relationship between a more diverse society and welfare is going to be one of the most relevant issues to deal with in the coming years for the European countries and regions (Freeman ; Christainsen ; Dennison and Geddes ).…”