Michael Clemens writes in Boston Review about the impact of low-skilled immigration.
From the article:
The heated debate over immigration reform continues in Washington. Much of the heat comes from one claim: immigration hurts low-skill US workers.
The idea is that immigration causes overall economic harm to low-skill US workers, because many immigrants are low-skill themselves and compete for the same jobs. This is a reasonable belief if all one has to go on is the kind of day-to-day experiences that everyone has—such as applying for jobs and competing with other applicants.
It is also wrong.
First, the vast majority of low-skill immigrants are not competing with any U.S. worker at all. The problem is not that Americans entering the labor force aren’t willing to take certain jobs. It’s that there aren’t enough Americans to do them.
Second, low-skill immigrant labor has numerous economic effects that end up, indirectly, creating new jobs for low-skill workers—including American workers. These effects are difficult to observe precisely because they are indirect.
Read more here.
