AILF: all common sense to the contrary, massive immigration and unemployment not linked (Rob Paral, Dan Siciliano)

Take a trip to topsy-turvy world with this:

Contrary to conventional wisdom -- and anti-illegal immigration rhetoric -- immigration rates have no direct effect on unemployment rates, according to a study released Tuesday.

The study was conducted by the Center for Immigration Policy, the research arm of the pro-immigration American Immigration Law Foundation. It compared rates of unemployment with immigration rates in states across the nation, and found no direct correlation.

...The study's author say immigrant populations are inherently more mobile, which means they can move to where the jobs are.

"You're not going to round up laid-off workers in Michigan and put them on buses to agricultural fields in California," (Dan Siciliano) said. "Having autoworkers picking lettuce is an absurd story."

Obviously, the dust bowl internal migrations never happened in his world. However, in our world, if we really wanted to, it would not be difficult to replace deported illegal aliens with unemployed U.S. citizens. Americans already do many farm jobs and - even if it requires a little help from the government - more can do it if necessary. Plus, with a lower supply of cheap foreign labor, many growers would be forced to mechanize which would lead to jobs for Americans to build harvesting machinery.

The AILF is related to the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The lead author of the study is demographer Rob Paral, and Siciliano is "executive director of the Program in Law, Economics and Business at Stanford Law School and a research fellow for the Washington, D.C.-based center."

Wed, 05/20/2009 - 14:09 · Importance: 4