Joanne Barkan Responds

Joanne Barkan Responds

You are about to read the account of a wrestling match between Richard Rothstein’s “Immigration Dilemmas” (Dissent, Fall 1993) and me. The struggle began when I came upon the following passage in Rothstein’s essay:

American upper-middle-class life is dependent on immigrant workers performing tasks at wages no established resident would consider. . . . Immigrant wages for housecleaning, lawn mowing, child care, and even carwashing make work outside the home feasible for people who could otherwise not afford it. Those who dream of cities without poorly educated, low-wage immigrants should be required to describe what middle-class and even lower-middle-class-life would be like without them. ...

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