New Study Shows Immigrants Help Americans Move Up
While the immigration debate has taken a backseat to the Democratic agenda of cap-and-trade and government run healthcare, 12 million illegal immigrants are still here, working and secretly contributing to our economy (Ssshhh!). The U.S. government spends substantial resources on building fences, airtight border control, and punishing employers who hire illegals. With all the money we spend trying to keep people who want to work out of this country, it is worth asking “what benefits do we get from harassing immigrants?”
Zero according to recent studies published by the Cato Institute which disprove many common myths associated with the immigration of Latin America’s poor. As the title of one study suggests, As Immigrants Move In, Americans Move up, increasing immigration quotas, (via temporary worker permits) has two positive effects on the American economy. First, immigrants expand the overall size of the economy; that seems positive. Second, their simple presence incentivizes Americans to advance their skill set or value.
To suggest that immigrants take American jobs that will never be replaced espouses Mercantalist ideology, a school of thought most thought died centuries ago. Wealth is not finite; to demonize immigrants as thieves who steal American jobs is false. Immigrants necessitate the creation of higher income jobs: accountants, doctors, managers, and other illustrious professions to manage newly legalized workers.
Secondly, when Hispanic immigrants come to the U.S. they often take what we would consider “lower end jobs”, thus putting them in competition with the very lowest skilled and educated Americans. Immigrants, by taking these “low-end jobs” forces Americans to improve their market worth so they are competitive for upper tier jobs. Immigrants effectively push Americans into higher paying jobs that offer a better quality of life. This may seem counterintuitive but is confirmed by the shrinking African-American underclass in three important categories: poverty, income, and educational attainment.
The Cato authors all came to the same conclusion; current immigration law is detrimental to the American economy. Through complicated econometric simulations, Cato authors Peter Dixon and Maureen Rimmer concluded that legalizing more unskilled workers would result in a $180 billion gain to the American economy.
The idea that the U.S. is “importing poverty” and social parasites is economically false. Instead of trying to ram through depressive economic legislation, Democrats, who dominate Congress and the Presidency, should be looking for ways to expand American’s economy through immigration reform that includes expanding visa caps.
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