Is the case for free trade weaker when the traded good is high tech labor? Julian Sanchez says no.

[Protectionists] might fondly wish that highly educated professionals in Asia would be kind enough to lobotomize themselves and go back to farming for the sake of inflating U.S. programmers’ wages. Alas, that’s unlikely to happen. If American tech firms are unable to benefit from the skills of foreign workers, we may rest assured that their foreign competitors will.

For Discussion. Assuming that the recovery begins to generate job growth, will protectionist pressures subside?