Immigration
Courtesy of Henry Hazlitt's book "Economics in One Lesson", which I have just read and decided to apply
Immigration has, throughout the history of the United States, been a major part of the country. Just about everyone has immigrants somewhere up the chain—three generations on my dad's side, more on my mom's.
Now, we seem to have two different positions: Republicans/Conservatives/the Right/some combination of the above want immigrants OUT; Democrats/Liberals/the Left…want them in? I think? It seems a little unclear, but they're definitely against mass deportation, and for more citizenship.
Let's break it down.
For a long time, immigration has allowed the United States to do incredible things. Back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, American industry exploded powered by the strength of immigrants. Railroads sped across the country, factories rose towards the sky, and canals were dug.
Millions of people entered the United States over a relatively short period of time (keep in mind how small the population of the world was only a century ago), and eventually we established quotas limiting how many people could enter the country.
Now, what exactly are the effects of immigration?
People enter the country. They bring with them work, and they bring with them need. Theoretically, adding a person to the system shouldn't be too bad. One more person to work, but also one more person to provide for. One could argue that one person doesn't consume as much food in a year anywhere near as much food as any one farmer produces, but they also consume clothing, housing, perhaps a vehicle, and other things, all roughly amounting to one person.
Now, what if we add a huge number of people to the system? In the grand scheme of things, there is no problem. More workers enter the force to supply labor, more people need labor to supply them. It balances out.
In the short term, how does this work? We have a vast amount of cheap labor available, and a vast number of people who need to be taken care of in food, clothing, housing, etc.
Certain employers are able to fire their current workers, and hire immigrants at lower wages. As a result, they spend less money and keep more profit.
Now, this produces a number of things:
1. Unemployed workers
2. Immigrants workers paid less (possibly not enough to live on)
3. Extra profit for the company
How do each of these things become disposed of?
3. Extra profit. There are a three things that are done with this. It is either distributed to the employees in various proportions, spent to expand the operations of the company, or stored in a bank. If it is distributed to the employees, they either spend it, and the money is redistributed to the economy, or they save it, and the bank loans it out, enabling other ventures and projects to be funded—just as it happens if the company saves the money. If the company spends the money to expand its operations, the money is distributed to the economy, and more workers are hired.
So, the net outcome of this is that either more immigrant workers are paid less, instead of fewer original workers being paid more, or the same number of people are paid less, and the money re-enters the economy some other way.
1. Unemployed Workers. Now, if we say "they're taking jobs from the original workers!" we must remember that while this is true, at the same time, these immigrants are generating a need for more jobs elsewhere. Those workers who have been displaced then have new job opportunities, likely paying more than their old job now pays. Perhaps a little less or not much more than they used to make, but not much of a difference.
This influx of persons might also benefit the country in some ways. More people to pay for federal health insurance. More people to pay taxes. More people to serve in the military. To look at something specific, many farmers are subsidized by the government to keep their crops off the market for better prices when demand is higher. More people means more grain is needed, so demand remains higher for longer, which would allow the government to wean farmers off of subsidies, saving the government money and producing independent workers.
Is there a catch?
We have demonstrated the what comes around, goes around. While workers may be displaced, it should only affect them negatively in the short term.
Now, it is certainly true that there are negative effects on the unemployed workers—mostly having to figure out how to find a new job. This may be problematic, as someone working an agricultural job may need more training to find a new job, but alternatively we see the influx of labor go up a little bit on each level, as people move down or up (mostly up, with surplus of labor).
Now, you can argue that, if this occurs, it is bad. Every job will pay a little less. However, if people move up, it won't matter—people might make relatively more money. If people don't really move up, then they make less money. However, if 99% of people make less money, then the economy will have to respond, and prices will go down.
2. Underpaid Immigrants. The issue is that these new people are being paid unfairly compared to other people. I am not trying to justify this, it is wrong. But, we must look at this relatively. If these people did not have these underpaid jobs, then they would be drawing unemployment wages, or being taken advantage of in other ways, whether that would be forced—essentially slave—labor with the threat of ICE being held over their heads, or actual enslavement—pornography or drug dealers —or waiting in lines at the border stations. They are being paid a wage, which is more than they were before. And, if they're not being paid enough, there are two things that counteract this: first, the value of things goes down because of the upwards ripple of lowered wages, and this gives them more purchasing power—perhaps even as much as the original workers. And, if the ripple doesn't do enough, the government has more money for unemployment wages and programs like SNAP—as we looked at in section 1, subsidies decrease, more taxes come in, and more health insurance is paid for.
Now, what is the problem with getting immigrants to this position?
First, we should clarify what we mean by an "illegal immigrant". As if the current moment, the Trump Administration seems to identify anyone who does not have citizenship or a work visa as an illegal immigrant, regardless of whether they are working through the immigration or asylum system, or they have simply managed to get into the country and are working under the table.
While I'm not intimately familiar with the immigration system, very little that I hear about it is good. What I see and hear about most often is people waiting at the border for weeks or even months to find out whether they can enter the country.
So, it seems that the solution is to establish strict quotas, and then enforce those quotas. Perhaps we make exceptions for refugees from certain areas (war zones and the like) but also it's quite hard to verify something like that.
As for the people currently in the nation, anyone who is in the system, trying to acquire citizenship, should be able to get it. For those who aren't, they should have to choose—apply for citizenship, or leave. There are people who have built family, careers, communities, and lives here in the United States, and it is cruel to just rip that away—especially from those who are trying to become citizens and functional members of society.
This also solves another problem—"illegal" immigrants don't pay taxes. Don't pay for health insurance. Sometimes live off government benefits (although much less in recent months). The government therefore has a larger income to either pay off debt or fix other problems—such as paying for a better immigration system.
I think we should deport criminals, but to openly say "no" to people in need, when we, as the United States, are in a position to help those who are struggling, is unfair and uncharitable.
Now, there’s a lot that I haven’t covered.
How does immigration affect the housing crisis? Do we build more houses? If so, then there’s more jobs for unskilled laborers. But do prices go down? Maybe, maybe not. The surplus of houses may bring it down, but then major real estate companies may raise the prices of their houses in order to make enough money to continue making profits.
Now, I mentioned that someone working an agricultural job might need training to find a new job. It’s true that there is a risk that blue collar workers might have difficulty finding or achieving white collar work or other blue collar jobs. It would really depend on how the job market grew or changed depending on the effects of immigrants joining the workforce. It’s not entirely clear.
I’ve talked for quite a bit now, and exhausted my capacity to analyze the situation. In summary, my overall take is something like this:
While I am open to establishing quotas for immigration and enforcing a border, we need to rework the immigration system so that an individual doesn’t have to spend weeks at the border trying to enter the country legally. In addition, those who are already in the country should be given the choice to become citizens, or leave - not just being removed. If they wish to leave, they need to be treated humanely.
Anyways, that’s all I’ve got, so keep it classy and take care.
Great job 💕😘