A new book on immigration by Colorado State University philosophy Professor Philip Cafaro will be the subject of a panel discussion at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., this week.
Cafaro, whose book How Many Is Too Many? The Progressive Argument for Reducing Immigration into the United States was published earlier this year, will participate in Thursday’s panel discussion, which is being hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies.
The panel will also include Michael Lind, a fellow at the New America Foundation, contributing editor at Politico and The National Interest, and columnist for Salon. The third panel member is author David Frum, former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, senior editor at The Atlantic and chairman of the board of trustees of the British think tank Policy Exchange. The discussion will be moderated by Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies.
Cafaro, a self-described liberal, makes the case in his new book that the current level of immigration isn’t consistent with progressive ideals. Cafaro argues that population growth leads to sprawling development, greater crowding, more pollution, increased greenhouse-gas emissions, and less room on the planet for other species.
In the book, published by the University of Chicago Press, he also provides evidence that flooding labor markets with immigrants drives down workers’ wages, undermines unionization efforts, and increases economic inequality.
The book has a Colorado focus — it features dozens of interviews with residents of the Centennial State: workers and employers, immigrants and natives, and environmentalists from across the state.
Cafaro is a fellow with the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at CSU and president of the International Society for Environmental Ethics. His writing and research focus on environmental ethics, consumption and population issues, including his first book, Thoreau’s Living Ethics: Walden and the Pursuit of Virtue.
The panel discussion begins at 9:30 a.m. in the Bloomberg Room of the press club, at 529 14th St. NW.
