The debate about immigration is usually framed around politics and labor markets. But the deeper story includes mobility. Who gets ahead, how, and why where they start determines so much about where you end up.

In this episode, Ben sits down with Leah Boustan, professor at Yale and co-author of Streets of Gold, to dig into what the data on immigration reveals about economic opportunity across generations.

Topics covered:

• Why immigration is an underappreciated driver of global mobility
• The Norway brothers study: why migrants earned double what their brothers who stayed earned, and why it had little to do with changing occupations
• What immigrants bring back when they return home and how that shapes sending countries
• How firms fit into immigrant assimilation
• Location and mobility: why immigrants have historically moved to high-productivity cities, whether that's changing, and what remote work means for this pattern
• The gap between public sentiment toward immigration and what economists know about its effects

About Leah Boustan: Leah Boustan is a professor of economics at Yale University and a research associate at the NBER. She is the co-author, with Ran Abramitzky, of Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success, which uses newly digitized historical records to trace the economic trajectories of immigrants and their descendants across generations.

Check out Leah's book Streets of Gold

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