Immigration Economics Part 1

This will be the first of (hopefully) many posts on the economics of immigration. My objective is to show that the basic position of New Labour on immigration - that is provides large economic benefits - is mendacious. The economics of immigration are very, very complicated and I will try and show that it is not wholly good or bad.

I will start with this article from American legal immigrant Tony Dolz. The particular myth that he has attempted to demolish is that the Hispanic immigrants 'do the jobs that Americans won't do'. There are a number of questions which arise from this statement. Who does the jobs that the Japenese won't do? If the wages for these jobs were higher would Americans 'not want to do them anymore?' e.t.c. Dolz claims that 97% of the jobs the ilegals do are in sectors such as construction, hospitality, manufacturing and service jobs. As Dolz says:

Are these jobs that Americans will not do?

He then demolishes most of the other arguments for ilegals:

As to the "hard-working" claim, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) notes: "The proportion of immigrant-headed households using at least one major welfare program is 24.5 percent compared to 16.3 percent for native households."

All in all it's an article which deserves to be read. And when examined in depth the economic reasons for supporting immigration become more and more tenous, as I hope my collection of articles will show.