Immigration does not resemble a zero-sum game

This does not look like a zero-sum game.

Publisert: 27. juli 2026

Mass migration is not the silver bullet economist think it is, according to Oren Cass (Opinion, July 11). Probably not, but does the proof of his scepticism lie in the fact that left-of-centre political parties on both sides of the Atlantic are discovering that unchecked immigration poses an existential threat to their electoral prospects?

How mass immigration will influence the economies of the US and the well-developed European welfare societies in the future will probably depend on how effectively what Cass calls “unskilled workers” are embraced and integrated into our labour markets.

A 2024 working paper from the IMF shows that close to two-thirds (2.7mn) of the EU jobs created between 2019 and 2023 were filled by non-EU citizens — the highest share in recent EU history — while the unemployment rate of EU citizens remained at historic lows.

This does not look like a zero-sum game. Whether good or bad, it seems to create a new division of labour where native-born employees advance into higher-skilled positions in sectors such as education, healthcare, ICT and public administration, while immigrants find jobs in sectors such as construction, food services and transport. Many of these jobs may be difficult to replace through shifting business models.

This text is printed in The Financial Times 25.7.2026.