They absolutely are pushing down wages, especially when they come from poor desperate countries, because they’re in a much more precarious financial position, they’re easier to exploit, less likely to join a union, and most importantly, more likely to work for lower wages.
Separating that, from the notion of racism or people getting mad at the immigrants, and not the elected officials creating the policies that allow your boss to import and exploit people from overseas, is important to working class success.
How did we get so easily baited into falling for this?
The point is, your boss could pay everyone, including them, as much as he always did, and more.
He specifically chooses to exploit this desperation and pay less, because the difference adds to his bottom line.
The anti-immigrant talks shift the blame from those who intentionally pay less to those who has to choose between a bad deal and starvation.
Elected officials won’t do anything about it until you force them to. And immigrants are your allies in this - they too are a workforce who needs better wages. Your interests are aligned.
They absolutely are pushing down wages, especially when they come from poor desperate countries, because they’re in a much more precarious financial position, they’re easier to exploit, less likely to join a union, and most importantly, more likely to work for lower wages.
Separating that, from the notion of racism or people getting mad at the immigrants, and not the elected officials creating the policies that allow your boss to import and exploit people from overseas, is important to working class success.
How did we get so easily baited into falling for this?
The point is, your boss could pay everyone, including them, as much as he always did, and more.
He specifically chooses to exploit this desperation and pay less, because the difference adds to his bottom line.
The anti-immigrant talks shift the blame from those who intentionally pay less to those who has to choose between a bad deal and starvation.
Elected officials won’t do anything about it until you force them to. And immigrants are your allies in this - they too are a workforce who needs better wages. Your interests are aligned.
The answer is propaganda, which is seen in your first sentence. It is very persuasive and it even worked on you. Everything else you said is spot on.
You’re just straight up factually wrong. Immigration has either little effect, or in fact increases wages for native citizens.
Instead of making statements based on your feelings and how you think that things work, you should do a bare minimum amount of research beforehand.
https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/revisiting-immigrations-effect-us-wages-and-employment
https://www.congress.gov/119/meeting/house/118767/documents/HHRG-119-JU01-20251217-SD001-U1.pdf
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2024/05/01/immigrants-raise-wages-and-boost-employment-of-us-born-workers/
https://abic.us/facts-immigrants-arent-stealing-your-jobs-or-lowering-wages/
https://www.nber.org/papers/w32389
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/immigrants-make-the-labor-market-great/
Thanks
Assuming there can only be a fixed number of jobs, you’re right. However, that’s like solving for spherical chickens in vacuum.