Immigration Watch International (2): Democrats undermine working class with open borders and illegal labor

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Democrats undermine working class with open borders and illegal labor

It is not surprising when Big Business calls for more immigration to keep wages down, but what has happened to the American left?

Last year, nine Democratic senators joined nine pro-business Republicans calling for an increase in the number of workers admitted under the H-2B program, which brings in lower-skilled non-agriculture workers. The Washington Post editorial board in September argued for “higher inflows of legal workers.” Nicole Narea at the liberal news site Vox states, “The federal government can’t force people to work but it can make it easier for immigrants” to come in and fill jobs.

One might think progressive voices would at least express some concern about the enormous decline in labor-force participation among the non-college-educated or the fact working-class wages have not kept pace with inflation. But not today’s left.

There is general agreement that immigration does lower wages. In an article for Foreign Affairs last month, prominent economists Gordon Hanson and Matthew Slaughter called for significantly increasing immigration to “limit wage and price growth.” UC-Davis economist Giovanni Peri makes much the same argument in an interview with NPR.
A comprehensive 2016 report by the National Academies of Science cites numerous studies showing a negative impact from immigration on wages, particularly those with low levels of education. Subsequent research shows the same thing.

But is it really a good idea to use immigration to increase the supply of workers and reduce wages? Wage growth — especially among the less-educated, who have relatively modest earnings to begin with — is almost certainly not a key driver of inflation. Congressional overspending is probably the most important cause, although international supply chain disruptions, pent-up demand during COVID, and the Fed keeping interest rates too low for too long also drove up consumer prices.

Progressives cheered all of the new spending, but now that inflation is roaring, many want to reduce the income of workers, including those who make modest wages. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that median weekly wages did not keep pace with inflation from the third quarter of 2020 to 2022. Even before COVID, the wages had shown little to no growth.

Perhaps worse than stagnant or declining wages is the decades-long decline in the labor-force participation rate of the US-born, meaning the share who are working or at least looking for work. Those out of the labor force do not show up as unemployed because they are not actively looking for work. The decline is especially pronounced among men without a bachelor’s degree. This falloff in labor-force participation causes a host of negative effects on individuals and society. It contributes to substance abuse, welfare dependency, mental health issues, crime, family breakup, and even early death. Getting more working-age people back into the labor force would be good for individuals, the economy and society in general.

Improvement is certainly possible but it will involve the difficult task of reforming our welfare and disability system and addressing the opioid and mental-health crises, and other issues, that have contributed to the decline in work. If the labor-force participation rate of working-age people ages 16 to 64 returned to what it was in 2000 — not exactly an eternity ago — it would add 6.5 million people to the labor force.

A tight labor market is a great opportunity to let wages rise for jobs generally performed by people without college degrees, encouraging more of them to come back into the labor force.

Instead, the Biden administration is encouraging mass immigration of people, many of whom can’t legally work and will pay little in taxes. Increasing the supply of labor lowers wages, particularly in the restaurant and construction industries, for everyone even if they are given work permits.

How can Democrats call themselves the party of the working class and encourage this?

https://nypost.com/2023/01/09/democrats-undermine-working-class-with-open-borders-and-illegal-labor/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Background

Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.

Why is "La Raza" the one Spanish term that is NEVER translated in the American mass media? Because translating it would make it a lot less respectable. It means "THE RACE" -- The mixed Hispanic "race" of Mexico. Racism is fine South of the Rio Grande only, apparently.

The "line" of this blog is that immigration should be SELECTIVE. That means that:

1). A national government should be in control of it. The U.S. and U.K. governments are not but the Australian government has shown that the government of a prosperous Western country can be. Up until its loss of office in 2007, the conservative Howard government had all but eliminated illegal immigration. The present Leftist government has however restarted the flow of illegals by repealing many of the Howard government regulations.

2). Selectivity should be based on "the content of a man's character, not on the color of his skin", as MLK said. To expand that a little: Immigrants should only be accepted if they as individuals seem likely to make a positive net contribution to the country. Many "refugees" would fail that test: Muslims and Africans particularly. Educational level should usually be a pretty fair proxy for the individual's likely value to the receiving country. There will, of course, be exceptions but it is nonetheless unlikely that a person who has not successfully completed High School will make a net positive contribution to a modern Western society.

3). Immigrants should be neither barred NOR ACCEPTED solely because they are of some particular ethnic origin. Blacks are vastly more likely to be criminal than are whites or Chinese, for instance, but some whites and some Chinese are criminal. It is the criminality that should matter, not the race.

4). The above ideas are not particularly blue-sky. They roughly describe the policies of the country where I live -- Australia. I am critical of Australian policy only insofar as the "refugee" category for admission is concerned. All governments have tended to admit as refugees many undesirables. It seems to me that more should be required of them before refugees are admitted -- for instance a higher level of education or a business background.

5). Perhaps the most amusing assertion in the immigration debate is that high-income countries like the USA and Britain NEED illegal immigrants to do low-paid menial work. "Who will pick our crops?" (etc.) is the cry. How odd it is then that Australians get all the normal services of a modern economy WITHOUT illegal immigrants! Yes: Before the pandemic, you usually COULD buy a lettuce in Australia for a dollar or thereabouts. And Australia IS a major exporter of primary products.

6). I am a libertarian conservative so I reject the "open door" policy favoured by many libertarians and many Leftists. Both those groups tend to have a love of simplistic generalizations that fail to deal with the complexity of the real world. It seems to me that if a person has the right to say whom he/she will have living with him/her in his/her own house, so a nation has the right to admit to living among them only those individuals whom they choose.

I can be reached on jonjayray@hotmail.com -- or leave a comment on any post. Abusive comments will be deleted.

Immigration Watch International (2)

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Democrats undermine working class with open borders and illegal labor

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