Shooting Ourselves in the Foot on Immigration
Xenophobia's cruel wages.
On the one hand, we have the xenophobic rhetoric of this administration, including the current attempt to redefine citizenship via Executive Order on the proviso that immigration is a net drain on America.
You know, stuff like this:
And this.
Here’s the text:
Imagine a “native Minnesotan who works as a lineman…worried about his ability to support for and provide his family.”
“And then imagine that he has a neighbor who’s a SOMALI REFUGEE who arrived two years ago and has a Mercedes and NO financial stress and no worries at all in the entire world and never seems to ever go to work at all because he just went to an office in the state, lied on a piece of paper, and got unlimited free money forever for life!”
“THAT is the system that is being run and that is the corruption that this task force under the leadership of the Vice President is going to demolish.”
The lies are just astounding, I have to note.
On the other hand, there is the reality that immigrants are good for the economy and the overall health and prosperity of the country. See, for example, this piece by Tara Watson at Brookings: The impact of immigrants on the US economy.
If the goals of the Trumpist win out, we are projected to shrink as a population. And as the piece notes, we are headed in the direction of zero migration in the short term, at least.
So while people like Stephen Miller and his ilk can revel in the bright white hues of Heritage Americans, all this means fewer workers, fewer taxpayers, and fewer consumers. This just in: those are all things a healthy economy needs.
And while the pro-natalists will try to say that what we need are more American babies, research shows that it is incredibly difficult to induce such outcomes. Even one of the most aggressive sets of attempts (in Hungary) has failed to produce the desired outcome.
As the report notes:
Though much of the rhetoric surrounding the immigration issue focuses on jobs for American workers, most economists agree that lower migration levels do not ultimately lead to additional employment for U.S.-born workers. Immigrants are consumers as well as producers of goods and services, so fewer immigrants means less consumer demand. As a result, the main effect of reduced immigration is simply a smaller economy. Moreover, an extensive literature documents that immigration to the U.S. has led to innovations that have boosted the productivity of U.S.-born workers. Cutting off immigration flows harms American economic growth.
As the piece notes, economic issues alone do not define the immigration issue, but I think this is all worth highlighting because it cuts counter to the narrative that the administration puts forward, which is based on the false notion that immigration makes us all worse off economically.
I recommend the whole thing.
Like with other major aspects of the Trump administration’s main policy goals, their approach on this topic is counterproductive, and if taken to its full effect, is massively damaging to the country in the long run.
The list is long: the attack on the global political order (and specifically NATO), tariffs, dismantling parts of the federal government, the war in Iran, and so forth. All of which are having, and will continue to have, profound diminutions on US power, prestige, and influence, all allegedly in service of Making America Great.
The profound irony of this presidency’s main slogan is painful to behold.
See also Krugman: The End of Immigration.
So, no – waging war against immigrants is not resulting in higher employment of the native-born. In fact, it’s contributing to a stalling of the economy in construction and in the service industries. And even the Trump administration has admitted that the immigration crackdown is hurting America’s farmers and the food supply.
[…]
Immigration expands the base of taxpayers, which means more people to share the burden of paying taxes to pay for defense. This includes undocumented immigrants, because their employers collect payroll taxes out of their wages, with the added fiscal payoff that they will never collect benefits. And because immigrants are relatively young and healthy, they increase the amount going into government coffers while having a delayed impact on outlays. The Social Security Administration does sensitivity analysis of factors affecting its projections, and consistently finds that higher immigration improves the system’s financial health, while lower immigration worsens it.
I could go on and on, but the point should be clear. Trump, Miller and company are succeeding in their anti-immigrant crusade, despite many failures of implementation, because they are managing to scare away millions of people who wanted to live and work in the United States, contributing to our society. And this “success” will leave us poorer and weaker.
So much winning!
It feels like he’s Mad Vlad’s prized asset, or that no idiot has ever been so useful.
Anyone got the address for that office?
These people are so f’ing stupid.
Economic arguments are irrelevant to these people. Might as well be arguing with Himmler that Jews contribute to the economy.
The”economic” arguments from people like Miller are transparent falsehoods, a thin veneer over their racism. They’re the equivalent of a comb-over, a sign of phoniness and fragility, obvious to all.
@Michael Reynolds: The sad thing is that Himmler probably did know that Jews contributed to the economy, but because of racism, and bigotry his hatred of Jews overcame this rational thought.
The same for Miller. He’s not stupid. He has a degree from a well-respected university. He can read the statistics as well as anyone, but it’s politically useful for him to play upon the racism and bigotry of the section of the public he is directing his propaganda.