Economically, legal immigration has had no known aggregate negative effects on the U.S. economy (the impact varies depending on country). This assumption is backed up by an astonishing amount of research throughout the past century. This is an extremely important point to remember....
Between 1990-2000, had illegal immigration not occurred, there would have been a labor shortage in unskilled labor (the numbers provided by the U.S. department of labor and statistics don't lie like the popular media does). Furthermore, almost all illegal immigrants are entering the unskilled (or sometimes semi-skilled) labor market. Which means that they are competing with only a select few native U.S. citizens anyway (who have been provided the means to acquire the skills necessary to enter the skilled labor force). Likewise, even when illegal, it could be argued (but isn't proven) that the impact on factors of production (such as the lowering of the wage rate) substantially outweighs the loss of tax revenue due to untaxed income and increased expenditures in the social welfare system. That is to say that there may actually be a net gain from illegal immigration, and if there isn't, it is more likely to be a breakeven than a net loss (and if it were a net loss, that loss would be minimal). Likewise, between 2008-2009 we have experienced a decrease in illegal immigration on average (year over year), to the tune of about 150,000 people (meager compared to the 14 million illegal immigrants currently residing in the U.S., but even so...) It has been proven relatively soundly that legal immigration in the U.S. typically affects the wage rate (but not the labor force participate rate) of unskilled workers almost exclusively (and this depends on immigration policy from country to country - in Canada immigration largely impacts the wage rate of skilled labor). Given the lack of statistical data (because they're undocumented), no conclusions can be drawn about the impact of illegal immigration, at least not quantitatively. We can do qualitative sociology based research though, and this research tends to support the assumption that illegal immigrants are here for the same reason as legal immigrants - unskilled labor. Thus, they impact the labor force (and the economy) in much the same way as legal immigrants, the only difference being the nominal loss of tax revenues and the nominal increase in tax expenditures.
This issue is largely (and some might say exclusively) political. Politics often includes fabrications, exaggerations, and constituent pandering. Economics does not. The hard science says that illegal immigration should be of no concern, especially to a nation like the U.S. (in contrast, illegal immigration of unskilled labor in Japan, if it were to occur, could have disastrous consequences). Generally speaking, they're not taking our women, and they're not taking our jobs (though I'm sure both occur occasionally).
The law is, of course, now technically constitutional; but it remains misguided, and will always be political pandering.
Anyone that is legitimately concerned about job losses in the U.S. should be more concerned with the state of our social welfare system, our tax system, and labor unions (and their extended impact on the operating costs of U.S. firms).
Log in to comment