
This is the century of whiteshift. As Western societies are becoming increasingly mixed-race, demographic change is transforming politics. Over half of American babies are non-white, and by the end of the century, minorities and those of mixed race are projected to form the majority in the UK and other countries. The early stages of this transformation have led to a populist disruption, tearing a path through the usual politics of left and right. One of the most crucial challenges of our time is to enable conservatives as well as cosmopolitans to view whiteshift as a positive development. In this groundbreaking book, political scientist Eric Kaufmann examines the evidence to explore ethnic change in Western Europe and North America.
That is indeed a problem, but it is your problem. If 48% of people support anything, there must be some reasons for it.
You're right about the consensus among economists. At the same time, 10 years ago there was a consensus about the virtues of free trade. Then Autor et al. wrote "The China Shock" and other similar papers, and, well, now there's not a consensus any more. Also, economics isn't immune to bias. Are papers showing a link from immigration to low wages, or crime, or reduced trust, likely to get a fair hearing?
Is desire for ethnic homogeneity close to racism? It seems to be very widely shared - including among impeccable liberals. See the evidence on white flight in Kaufmann's Whiteshift. Homophily is close to a human universal, so it's not obvious that it is wrong, or stupid, to prefer others like ourselves.
If we trade we have to accept rules. But now we get to choose which, right? As you say, if we don't like US rules on chicken, we can trade that off against the costs. The value of tying ourselves to the EU depends on how you view its future. There's a fair case that it is an aging, sclerotic continent that can only make money by imposing fines on US tech companies. I don't say that's the only perspective that you can make.
Lastly, the UK is a democracy. The EU, hardly (see Perry Anderson's recent essays in the LRB for a fairly comprehensive account). Democracy sure has its flaws, but doesn't the threat of the boot encourage politicians to get things done? In this context, the contrast between the UK's vaccination program and the EU's is telling.
One of my cousins was excited to go to a certain school because of its (American) football team but he did not get along with the coach. Your child might go to what other people think is a great school but not really benefit from it.
Many people think it is harmful that people move to choose schools
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two-Income_Trap
What you might find curious from this book
https://www.amazon.com/Whiteshift-Populism-Immigration-Futur...
is that there is both black and white flight from neighborhoods from neighborhoods that have asians moving in. Many of those people perceive that asians are competitive in a way that detracts from the atmosphere of the school to other people. The society as a whole doesn't appear to give asians the same benefits of educational accomplishment that other people get from it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_ceiling
Myself I got a PhD but have mixed feelings about the academic enterprise, my son is not interested in college but instead he wants to get good at a blue collar job and I see nothing wrong with that.
