The immigration reform and its potential impact on employment

A while ago, I was surfing the net to get more information about "The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013" the latest in immigration reform, and one that has been touted by the media as good one.

You know who likes this bill, Grover (I wish he could be as nice as his namesake Muppet) Norquist.  I saw an opinion piece he wrote for the British newspaper, "The Guardian."  He says that the bill will be good for the American economy.

 

Why does he like the bill? For the same reason all the Republicans like the bill (but some do pretend to hate it), because it basically opens the flood gates for immigration.   With more available people to compete for jobs, wages will go down, it is the simply law of supply and demand.  Republicans will not be happy until Americans are making the same wages as the Chinese and Indians (of India not Native Americans).  

The bill does call for more border security, but only across Mexico as many of the states that border Mexico have pleaded for.  I do not believe the bill does much for the Canadian border or any other way someone can enter this country illegally.  

In times of economic prosperity, when America has a growth economy, it makes sense to allow for immigration, but in the shrinking economy that Americans are living in, it would make sense to freeze immigration until unemployment dips below 4% or so.

Australia, which has a very strict anti-immigration policy, and no countries bordering it, currently has only 5.6 percent unemployment as opposed to America's 7.6.

Wealthy Americans will not be happy until unemployment is around 26% as in Greece which would eventually enable them to drive wages down to a fraction of what they currently are at least as low as mainland China's. 

Then why are some Republican politicians opposed to the bill?  Perhaps it is to appeal to some of their racist constituents or perhaps they just want to keep President Obama from appearing to move things forward with immigration and by doing this they make him look even more inept than he already does.

President Obama is behind giving Visas to highly-skilled foreigners in order to help grow the economy, but I think this also hurts opportunities for American citizens.  If we had a strict anti-immigration policy, companies would be forced to pay to train Americans to fill the jobs they need.  This would benefit the American worker who would gain a useful skill set and make him employable as well in demand in the workforce.  It would also benefit the college or institution that has to train him.  The only one that looses out is the company that has to pay for the training.  It is much easier and cheaper to import foreign laborers that already have the skill sets that American companies need.  It is even cheaper if the company can off-shore the jobs altogether.

And then there is the issue of security.  While America has always been a country made great by immigrants who have left their oppressive countries to be free in the USA, the times have changed greatly.  While immigrants love to come here to enjoy a higher quality of life, there is much hate and envy of the United States.  We have to make sure that at all entry points,not just the borders, that we are not letting in foreign terrorists.  Any immigration reform act should have strict provisions for this, but of course it does not.

In summary I think we should keep the doors to immigrants closed as much as possible until our economy makes a full recovery.  I think that it is awful that there are liberal groups pushing for both lax immigration and raising the minimum wage, because the influx of cheap labor, especially in hard economic times, would only keep wages down.

 

Immigration reform means more people compete for fewer jobs.

That new immigration policy President Obama announced was a real humdinger.  It will allow 800,000 illegal aliens who had come to United States when they were sixteen years or younger to reside and work here. 

Mitt Romney has refused to make any real comment coming out against this policy because it would seem that he would not want to offend the Latino community whose vote is very important for the upcoming election.  However, I believe that the Republicans want this new policy even more than the Democrats do.  It will mean 800,000 more people competing in a shrinking job market, driving labor costs down even further, now if we could only get rid of that pesky minimum wage....

The country that is renowned for having a very strict immigration policy is Australia.  I checked online to see what their unemployment rate was like since the current economic downturn is supposed to be worldwide.  The statistic I found was that in April 2012 their unemployment was only 4.9%.  Wow, that's about equal to the United States unemployment rate before the economic downturn in 2008.

It is very easy to see the purpose of immigration, which is to bring labor costs down.  It may make sense in times of prosperity, but it does not make sense in times of despair.  "But things are looking up" you say.  I don't think things will look up until our unemployment rate is the same as Australia's.

No Democrat or Republican is pushing for a mandate of the E-Verify system to establish a nationwide citizenship verification system.  E-Verify was put into place after 9/11 in order to enhance security, but no one wants to use it to get rid of cheap illegal labor.  

Also the Republican controlled House of Representatives voted down the "U.S. Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act" which was aimed at giving the right for a person to ask to speak to a customer service representative in the United States.  Over 500,000 call center jobs in the last six years have been lost to off-shoring and this bill would have prevented the loss of even more jobs.  

By looking the actions of both the Democrats and the GOP and the actions of both the executive and legislative branches of our government, Americans can see that we are the victims of a two man con came.  A game that will bring the same 30 percent unemployment that some European countries currently have to the United States.  Neither party is looking to alleviate this unemployment situation, they appear to only want to make things worse.  Is there no one out there who can help us?