zlacker

>>tysone+(OP)
Wage growth would help, but for some reason, these articles never even mention immigration. The scale of immigration both legal and illegal I believe has the greatest impact on the lowest sectors of society. The lack of discussion on the impact so many potential new workers is having on wage growth leads one to think they believe labor cost is the one thing immune to the law of supply and demand.

>>tosser+aH
It’s interesting the immigration cannot even be mentioned without getting down voted.

It seems obvious to me that fewer low skill workers would result in higher wages for those who could most benefit from it.

>>tosser+6I
This does not seem obvious to me. For example, imagine if you overnight doubled the US population. Would wages go down? Well, overnight you would also double the economy and double demand for just about every kind of work, from hairdressers to security guards. What's the overall effect? (And you are talking about just 3.5%, not 100%.)

Here's one classic study on the effect:

David Card, "The Impact of the Mariel Boatlift on the Miami Labor Market" (1990), http://davidcard.berkeley.edu/papers/mariel-impact.pdf

Quoting from the abstract: "…This paper describes the effect of the Mariel Boatlift of 1980 on the Miami labor market. The Mariel immigrants increased the Miami labor force by 7%, and the percentage increase in labor supply to less-skilled occupations and industries was even greater because most of the immigrants were relatively unskilled. Nevertheless, the Mariel influx appears to have had virtually no effect on the wages or unemployment rates of less-skilled workers…"

That's a rapid influx of 7% of Miami's population! But the effect isn't obvious to economists, either, and you can find people arguing both sides. This is a fairly balanced article: https://www.npr.org/2017/08/04/541321716/fact-check-have-low...

>>greene+1L
Most immigrants (legal and illegal) are not Indian software engineers working at Google. They are low skill/poorly educated and got in on refuge status or because they have a family member already in the country. They work as taxi drivers, construction workers, cashiers, etc. It's not a huge leap of imagination that a constantly increasing low skill labor supply is to the detriment of current workers in these fields (many of whom might be immigrants themselves). 29% of immigrants lack a high school degree or equivalent GED and are disproportionally represented in the service industry, construction, maintenance, and other blue collar positions.

For example: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/source_i...

So yes, it is likely that immigration rates have a negative effect on the wages of native workers in low barrier of entry positions. You'd have to suspend disbelief to accept the narrative that there is no impact.

source: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested...