Our roundup of everything we have consumed and thought about over the past week.
Lots of immigration news: Americans name immigration as the most important problem facing the U.S. for the first time since 2019, surpassing government (20%), economy (12%), and inflation (11%). Over the past two months, the percent of Americans saying immigration was the top issue jumped by 8 percentage points. Reporting from Bloomberg shows where migrants are going after they cross the border — and the answer is, basically, where the work is. Bloomberg says that “they are flocking to cities but also to rural areas with significant work in the meat packing and agriculture industries that traditionally employ large numbers of migrants.” The data also suggest that New York state saw the highest number of migrant arrivals in 2023 on a per capita basis: 1 per 100 residents of the state. Speaking of New York — a statewide program in New York known Migrant Relocation Assistance Program whose aim is to rehouse some of the 65,000 migrants in the shelter system is… failing. It has moved only 174 households into housing. A comparable program in Chicago has moved 4,697 households into apartments. As the Times reports, “because of local opposition to the program, the state is resettling migrants in only five of its 62 counties: Albany, Erie, Monroe, Suffolk and Westchester.” The limited success of the New York program is also partly due to its restriction on resettlement within the city, which many migrants prefer due to employment opportunities. Our interview with Austin Kocher this week has some really great points on labor and migration. Both Trump and Biden made stops along the border on Thursday — a familiar ritual in American political theater. We were reminded of the time that Trump signed the wall with a sharpie in 2019.
“They are freaking out about the uncommitted vote”: More than 100,000 Democratic voters in Michigan voted 'uncommitted' over Biden in a protest vote for Gaza and Biden alluded to an imminent ceasefire while licking an ice cream cone.
The brands are gearing up for election season: 60+ beauty brands are fundraising for reproductive rights. Reformation, in collaboration with Monica Lewinsky (who, as we all know, was simply born in the wrong generation) and vote.org, launched a campaign encouraging people to vote. They also launched a sweatshirt. There is something about voting language on a pull-over that feels very 2016, which is…foreboding.
More famous people should talk critically about fame: Everyone is catching on to the fact that Pamela Anderson is the best celebrity. She shared her thoughts on fame/ success in a new interview with Highsnobiety, saying: “I feel successful because I’ve overcome and gotten through certain things and feelings. And this drives my kids nuts because my kids are ambitious. They’re calculated. They’re men. They’re young, and they have all this passion. But they’re materialistic, and I keep going, ‘Eh, it’ll pass.’ We all get roped into, ‘Oh, I want to be successful so I can have this and this, and show people that I’m cool, chic, admired.’ And then we’re all just left with debt and a fancy car. It’s just like chasing age. You’re not going to win. A life is less conclusive than that.”
Have a good weekend: