The New York Occasions has a really lengthy piece on the problem of immigration. Right here’s my model of a TLDR:
Denmark has proven that an enlightened progressive authorities can protect its welfare state by adopting pretty restrictive insurance policies on immigration. Thus it’s now OK for American liberals to modify to a place of opposition to massive scale immigration.
The Democratic Get together institution was already leaning on this route as a result of current presidential election, however the NYT story supplies a form official sanction for progressives to regulate their views on immigration.
To be clear, I agree with those that counsel that the surge in undocumented immigrations throughout 2021-24 was an issue for the Democrats within the current election. Certainly, the Biden administration appeared to acknowledge this truth, however too late to change voter perceptions. Nonetheless, I used to be dissatisfied by the NYT story, which introduced a considerably distorted view of the broader immigration subject.
Think about the next assertion:
Many research discover a modestly destructive impact on wages for individuals who already reside in a rustic, falling totally on low-income employees. A 2017 report by the Nationwide Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Drugs, supposed as a complete evaluation of the financial results of immigration, incorporates a desk itemizing rigorous educational research that estimate immigration’s results on native wages; 18 of the 22 outcomes are destructive.
Most readers most likely don’t hassle following up by analyzing the report cited by the Occasions. Right here is its summary:
The Financial and Fiscal Penalties of Immigration finds that the long-term affect of immigration on the wages and employment of native-born employees general may be very small, and that any destructive impacts are more than likely to be discovered for prior immigrants or native-born highschool dropouts. First-generation immigrants are extra expensive to governments than are the native-born, however the second technology are among the many strongest fiscal and financial contributors within the U.S. This report concludes that immigration has an general constructive affect on long-run financial progress within the U.S.
I gained’t say the NYT description was false, however it was definitely a bit deceptive.
Or contemplate the next merchandise from the Occasions story:
Through the Biden administration, the US skilled its most speedy immigration on file, with a tempo of entry that surpassed even that of the height years of Ellis Island. Greater than eight million individuals entered the nation, about 60 % with out authorized permission. In all, about 16 % of U.S. residents right this moment have been born overseas, exceeding the earlier excessive of 14.8 % in 1890.
Given their earlier declare that immigration particularly lowers the wages of these on the backside, you may need anticipated the Occasions to offer some information concerning the impact of the unprecedented wave of immigration. I believe I do know why they didn’t accomplish that. It seems that this surge in immigration was related to unusually massive wage features among the many lowest paid employees. It’s clear that the creator of the story was making an attempt to cherry decide information that supported their argument, and conceal information that recommended immigration doesn’t harm actual wages.
The story additionally mentions the truth that immigrants to international locations resembling Denmark and Sweden have a tendency to interact in additional crime than the native born inhabitants. However they fail to say that immigrants to the US are far much less doubtless to commit crimes than are native-born Individuals. Certainly, in locations like New York Metropolis the crime fee typically decreases sharply when a wave of immigrants supplant the native born inhabitants. I reside in Orange County, which mixes an particularly excessive immigrant inhabitants with an particularly low crime fee. I ponder why the NYT recommended that America wanted to study from what occurred in Denmark, however failed to say that the immigrant crime drawback in Scandinavia doesn’t apply to the US?
