Michael Eisen on Immigration

Differentiate dangerous immigrants from those who integrate

Eisen: My goal here is not a narrow defense of science. I am not about "Get more funding for science!" Rather, it is about a worldview--a way of approaching problem-solving and thinking about challenges. People do it every day in their real lives, but yet for some reason it has ceased to drive our political decision-making. For instance: How can we best grow food that is good for us, and how should agriculture be structured? What kinds of immigrants integrate well and who is dangerous? There are answers to these questions, based on data and analysis. I have a hypothesis: Having more scientists involved in politics and the public sphere would improve the way we make decisions, the way we characterize our world and how we figure out what we do about it. I felt it was necessary to test that hypothesis.