We liberals sometimes have a disturbing tendency to ignore unpleasant truths when they conflict with our agendas. On no issue is our perception more blinkered than on immigration. Rather than formulating policy by weighing all the facts we often regard only the benefits of our proposed policies, while ignoring the harm they do. Our current high immigration rates and lax enforcement have clear beneficiaries, but the price for their good fortune is being paid by the poorest, most vulnerable Americans, people who no longer seem to have a voice or advocates in the Democratic party. In this diary I wish to describe more than prescribe. There are many possible ways forward on immigration reform, but I hope we follow a path that acknowledges all the realities. IowaPopulist's diary :: :: There are 10 million non-immigrant American workers without a high school diploma, 8% of the non-immigrant workforce (Camarota, 2006) Between 2000 and 2005, 34% of new immigrants had less than a high school diploma and those people compete directly for jobs with less-educated Americans. Camarota estimates that this competition depresses the wages of people in occupations requiring little education (one fifth of all U.S. jobs) by more than 10%. George Borjas estimates that between 1980 and 2000, the wages of non-immigrant men without a high school diploma were reduced 7.4% by immigration (Borjas, 2004). These are already the poorest, most economically disadvantaged Americans, disproportionately minority members. Poor Americans also suffer increased unemployment as a result of the influx of less-educated immigrants. While demand for unskilled labor has stagnated for decades , businesses have used less-educated, Third World immigrants, legal and illegal, to displace Americans, and particularly black Americans, from the workforce. Borjas et al., (2006) found that from 1960 to 2000, the employment rate for non-immigrant black men fell from 90% to 76%, and for those with less than a high school diploma, from 89% to 56%. We know the social tragedy that has resulted. Black people were not the only victims. For non-immigrant white men without a high school diploma employment dropped from 94% to 76%. Borjas estimates that 20 to 40% of the increase in unemployment among these non-immigrant Americans results from immigration, with the highest percentages pertaining to less-educated black men.

http://wwww.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/5/777541/-Effect-of-Immigration-on-Low-Income-American-Workers Comment: Expect to get called racist... (6+ / 0-) Recommended by:Brooke In Seattle, bleeding blue, oceanstar17, IT Professional, IowaPopulist, candycane386 ...most here on Kos have made the cynical calculation to appeal to hispanic votes by looking the other way on illegal immigration (for whatever reason hispanic votes conflate enforcement of immigration laws with racism) while ignoring those we pretend to support. ---- Do you deny that... (3+ / 0-) Recommended by:IT Professional, IowaPopulist, candycane386 ...most conflate any effort to control immigration with racism (and while that isn't exactly what he's done even Kos has been critical of calls for control). ---- You can't... (7+ / 0-) Recommended by:Samulayo, Brooke In Seattle, bleeding blue, IT Professional, IowaPopulist, LegendClick, candycane386 just legalize without encouraging the behavior to continue. The diarist points out how cracking down on illegal immigration has helped those lower on the economic ladder. Don't like it? Disprove his links. ---- Good luck with this post (3+ / 0-) Recommended by:jbdigriz, IT Professional, IowaPopulist Look for everyone to come after you and say that, because you oppose illegal immigrant, by default, you are a "racist". ---- In their mindset the following equation applies Opposing illegal immigration = racism ---- http://wwww.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/5/777541/-Effect-of-Immigration-on-Low-Income-American-Workers

Liberal or conservative, insisting on viewing the U.S.-Mexico problem through the distortions caused by the 1848 Apartheid is doomed to eternal failure. There's so many Mexicans in the U.S. that it's counterproductive to try to separate them into legals and illegals, as is trying to treat Mexico as a separate country. Instead, why not work to eliminate the real problem, the corrupt Mexican federal govt., and incorporate Mexico into the U.S. as 10+ new states sans racism, allowing it to finally be developed as a sector of the U.S.? So what if "gringos" are always the employers, and Mexicans take the low-end jobs? After the border comes down, millions of gringos can finally move south and set up whole new cities, creating jobs at all levels, helping alleviate Mexican poverty while raising their own net worth. Take time to check out my nonpartisan Megamerge Dissolution Solution showing how it can be done starting as early as 2010.

_This myth stems from the idea that the number of jobs in America is fixed, and every job taken by an immigrant reduces the total number of available jobs,..._ At any one time the number of jobs is fixed; in fact, there might even be fewer jobs this month than last, as we've experienced for a long time now (yet I don't imagine immigration has slowed a whole lot during that time). And since we all must live in the moment... This guy is a perfect example of why many people look on economists with contempt.

If obama gets his way we will see 30 percent unemployment and a real hate race population inside the USA Or as I call it The Former USA And it will be known by that name soon.

Hey Winslow-Are you really Geraldo ? I'm beginning to think so!!

Thanks for spotting this. Not a surprise to see TM has yet to get his Phd. See http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2009/09/24/from-the-minneapolis-fed-puerile-immigration-propaganda/

"Economist" could not find their ass with both hands, much less write a truthful white paper.