By Dan Williams
It’s a sign of the twisted nature of politics that the party of business vehemently opposes something that is a net good for business and consumerism, while the party of the working-class voices unequivocal support for workers who systematically lower wages.
There is a consensus among economists that illegal immigration is a boost to the economy, the “immigration surplus” as it’s called. Illegal immigrants work for less, giving companies the ability to expand, no longer constrained by such pesky costs as minimum wage and employee insurance.
However, the idea that illegal immigrants do jobs that other workers won’t do is hard to support. Census data show that most immigrants work jobs alongside native-born workers, such as construction and janitorial work. The more correct point is that illegal immigrants fill labor shortages: A job that can’t get done if there’s no one to do it. The argument that we should support illegal immigrants because they are working jobs so abhorrent no one else will do them is backwards and false.
It’s important to recognize, furthermore, that the economic benefit of illegal immigration is a process of “shifting wealth from labor to capital,” said Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Businesses can expand if there’s a labor surplus. Agricultural producers can sell food cheaper. Consumers reap the benefit of lower prices. Overall, the economy grows.
It’s not all that surprising, then, that many labor union leaders threw in their support for Donald Trump. While there is a net economic benefit, it’s false to say that there are no detrimental economic effects of illegal immigration. Low-skilled workers are in direct competition with illegal immigrants, and they lose almost every time.
Low-skilled workers, the uneducated poor, absorb the effect of illegal immigration. These low-skilled workers include the same people increasingly slipping through the social safety net and dying “deaths of despair”: suicide, alcoholism, drug overdose, etc. While the study I mentioned last week focused on non-Hispanic whites, there’s no reason to limit competition low-skilled workers face to whites.
Regardless of race, if you’re poor and uneducated, you are far more likely to have your wages undercut by an illegal immigrant. That means less opportunity for a decent paycheck. That means having to resort to selling or manufacturing drugs. All this can lead to increased violence and a general feeling of animosity in a community.
The recent demagoguery surrounding illegal immigration makes it clear that some Republicans are concerned less with economics than with “the rule of the law.” While we can personally dismiss Rep. Steve King as an embarrassment to Iowa, we cannot dismiss the cultural concerns that opponents of illegal immigration voice. Mass immigration into communities contributes to the unweaving of the social fabric for the simple reason that there are fewer people around whom you know. Even if illegal immigration isn’t the root cause of this unraveling, we can still show support for these struggling communities by not exacerbating their woes and showing a modicum of respect.
It’s ironic that liberals, who talk so often of solidarity, so easily dismiss white folks’ anxieties about changing demographics, as if they expect low-income families to just curl up in a ball and die so the “right side of history” can steamroller its way through. Such revenge-thinking is the height of irrationality and is ultimately counterproductive.
The price paid for ignoring legitimate concerns and adhering to liberal demagoguery is reactionary populism. As we continue to enjoy the economic benefits of illegal immigration, liberals ought to ask themselves if they can morally allow themselves to do so.
