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by exabrial 2851 days ago
He's not completely incorrect though: Illegal immigration accounts for a significant portion of farm and construction labor in the southwest/midwest because it gets around pesky minimum wage and other labor laws. These are usually unskilled jobs however, so their effect on other wages is likely nonsignificant. Legal Immigration in general tends to grow wages as the GDP and investment increases.
2 comments
learc83 2851 days ago
We also don't know what the real impact undocumented immigrants have on the labor market. They tend to have some impact on aggregate demand, the same as legal immigrants because they also participate in the economy as well.
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rco8786 2851 days ago
Right. illegal immigration likely does not effect these numbers in a significant way, and legal immigration raises wages.

How is it not a scapegoat to say immigration is the cause of flat wages?

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adventured 2851 days ago
> How is it not a scapegoat to say immigration is the cause of flat wages?

Flood your economy with low skilled labor at the same time that average GDP growth is at an all-time low and productivity growth is at an all-time low. See what happens.

If your economy isn't growing fast enough to absorb the amount of low skill labor that you're importing, you're going to considerably depress wages.

In more realistic terms, 1.5% to 2% GDP growth isn't going to get you anywhere. You have a stagnant economy at those growth rates. Finally then the mistake is being made of throwing a lot of new unskilled labor on top of that at exactly the historical time when you need a lot of new unskilled labor the least.

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rco8786 2851 days ago
What you’re saying is directly opposed to what the article states, FYI.
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exabrial 2851 days ago
If the labor pool increases in relation to jobs, than yes, he's correct, it will depress wages, that's simple economics. However the blame doesn't lie with the immigrants: you shouldn't be working so simple a job it can be easily taken over by an unskilled worker and expect a decent wage.
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int_19h 2851 days ago
When you add an immigrant to the country, it's not just the labor pool that grows - it's also the demand (because every new resident needs housing, food and other services), and that demand translates to jobs.
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exabrial 2850 days ago
Exactly. I'm not sure why we're being down voted into oblivion, but this is exactly correct.
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