immigrants actually raise wages in California.?

Question

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/the_valley/16796298.htm?source=rss

What do you think?

The report talks about all immigrants, legal and illegal. It does not distinguish between the two, there would not be any way to do that.

Answer 1

Don't believe everything you read. The aricle sounds pro-immigrant (illegal) to me.

Answer 2

There certainly would be a way to differentiate. The guy who started Google immigrated -legally. Wonder how much that throws off the curve in California?

The fact is, as with every country, we slant our permitted immigration towards those with skills and education, because those immigrants bring a net economic benefit. We let in some poor, but since we subsidize their education and other services, we limit that more. Therefor unless you carve out illegal immigrant impacts alone, it is meaningless.

What is funny is that even if you average the impact of the farm hands to that of the guy who started google (and many other skilled immigrants) you still only get a 'slight' raise in wages for 'high school drop outs'. Isn't it coincidental that California just started a new $7.50 minimum wage? Because it was desparately needed, of course. I suspect that has more to do with any raise of wages for high school drop outs. On the other hand, I note that they didn't examine the wage impact on construction workers.

Sociald - very good point.

Answer 3

It is a very narrow review of the effects. It does not concede that "push" factors may be involved nor does it allow for living expenses [outside the norm] to be invested into this report. For example one section states

"The values reported in Table 4 are the percentage changes in real wages resulting from immigration over the period 1990–2004, relative to a baseline scenario with no immigration
(and keeping other things constant). "

Keeping other things constant; is an impossibility, the only way to do that would to have a stagnant economy which does not happen. Median cost of homes, energy and other related items skyrocketed in the 90's.

Factors such as those should be analyzed as contributors to possible real wage growth instead of blithely assuming immigration as the "only" cause.

Answer 4

This only applied to a very small minority of specially trained, bilingual government employees who work with immigrants. Again, we are tired of being told we have to adapt to immigrants rather than them adapting to us. And, most people are not specially trained, college educated or bilingual. Legal immigration in the past was a trickling in of foreigners who had a hard time integrating, but were required to do so. It was like a badge of honor for them to accomplish this and become Americans. Now we have a FLOOD of immigrants, half of whom are illegal, making up about 60% of the population (in California, which is where this article is from). They dominate the unskilled labor market and social services. The people they are squeezing out are the poor and working class.
They have never been a major threat to people with money, education or special training. Unless, of course, you count the fact that the swell at the bottom and the division between the haves and have nots lowers the quality of life of the middle class. But that's not what we're talking about.
This article/study is misleading. Just because things are fine for a handful of people, they seem to want to take focus off the majority for whom things weren't fine before the run for the border and aren't fine now with all the unfair competition.

Answer 5

Politics at its best.

I know a gentleman that works at Tyson Chicken and he had to go through a temp agency to get hired at $10. I can remember 10 years ago americans were making $15-$19 an hour at the same plant.

If illegal workers raised the wages then why are so many businesses hiring them. That article doesn't reflect the majority of what is happening in our country.

Now they are most likely going to get the "Dream Act" in state tuition for illegal aliens. Sad country we live in, and these are the politicians we put into office. Soon all countries will begin sending their poor to the U.S.

Over $20 Billion was sent back last year. Which didn't benefit our economy. Maybe the money wiring companies.

Answer 6

Actually the wages are high in California because it is so expensive to live. How do you explain the other 32 states where illegals are keeping the wages down because big companies do not want to pay an American a good wage when the can hire an illegal for next to nothing.

Answer 7

They are only talking about legal immigrants. They are documented in the books or there would be no way to create a report based on analysis of wage and employment data. No illegals included here. Until they find a way to gather the magnitude the data is incomplete and unreliable.

Answer 8

Newspapers, magazines, TV shows, and Hollywood are owned by corporate monopolies. Which are lobbied by their fellow big businesses to be pro-illegal. Or should I say, pro-cheap labor.

Big businesses only see dollar signs.

Here's the way they think:

Why should I hire an American and pay him or her a good salary with benefits when I can get cheap labor, without paying him benefits and work his butt off for 50 hours a week?

Corporate fat cats live in gated communities, have armed body guards and can escape to safe places in their private jets if they have to. So they could care less if the streets in your neighborhood become more dangerous. All that matters is that these corporate fat cats get rich in the process.

Answer 9

More people = More workers = More jobs done = Better living condition

However, increased wage doesn't necessary mean better living condition.

On the other hand, decreased wage especially the lack of a minimum wage law might mean better living condition.


Low wages mean more people are capable of being employers and be employed, the goods and services are priced lower since the wages are lower, and so on.

High wages mean less people are capable of being employers and be employed, the goods and services are priced higher since the wages are higher, and so on.


Immigrants and low wages might have been the only thing that stopped the American economy to go badly.

It should be noted that they are doing things logically, they go to places and work there, they work at wages that are considered high back at their home town, they sent the money home and spent it there.

Americans used to do that. Fathers, brothers, and so on usually were hired to construction works at far away places, only to send the money back home to their families.

Answer 10

Illegal immigrants do not raise wages and sent more than 6 billion dollars a year back home therefore taking that money OUT of the US economy. Mercurynews? Cummon.

Answer 11

It just proves one thing.
Paper will hold still and you can write anything on it......Doesn't make it true but paper does not care nor does it differentiate between fact and fiction.

From the samre article:

``It's like a man bites dog story, isn't it?'' said Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA Educational and Research Foundation in Arlington, Va. The group conducts research on immigrant labor force, and supports strict limits to legal immigration.

``It paints a rosy picture,'' a doubtful Beck said. ``It seems surprising.''

Gordon Hanson, director of the Center on Pacific Economies at the University of San Diego, who has conducted studies on immigration and the U.S. labor force, said he disagrees with Peri's findings that ``immigrants are just hurting themselves.''

Hanson cites a 2003 study by Harvard University economist George Borjas that said low-skilled native workers have been hurt by immigration.

Outside of California, in regions with growing immigrant populations, researchers have documented the negative impact of the influx of immigrants on the native labor force, said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., a national that advocates for limits to legal immigration.

It would appear from the above that more disagree than agree.