On the 20th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen welcomes Dr. Tara Watson. Tara Watson is an economist who focuses on U.S. social policy, with interests in the safety net, health, and immigration. She is a Professor of Economics at Williams College since 2004, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and a Co-Editor of the Journal of Human Resources. In 2015-2016, Watson served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Microeconomic Analysis in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Economic Policy. She was previously a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan, a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and a Research Associate at the Princeton Center for Research on Child Wellbeing. Dr. Watson earned her Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 2003. Her 2021 book, “The Border Within: The Economics of Immigration in an Age of Fear,” (University of Chicago, 2022) co-authored by journalist Kalee Thompson, provides a compelling analysis of the costs and impacts of immigration and immigration policy on every aspect of American life, from the labor force to social welfare programs to tax revenue. | 