IN the campaign season now drawing to a close, immigration and globalization have often been described as economic threats. The truth, however, is more complex.
Over all, it turns out that the continuing arrival of immigrants to American shores is encouraging business activity here, thereby producing more jobs, according to a new study. Its authors argue that the easier it is to find cheap immigrant labor at home, the less likely that production will relocate offshore.
This short summary of the book written by two economic professors definitely gives a more optimistic aspect of immigration than normally seen. They make note of some benefits of immigration, while still pointing out some of the costs of immigration. Immigration does keep jobs in the U.S. that might otherwise be moved offshore. On the other hand, the costs can be very high as well. One of the main costs of keeping production in the U.S. is that consumer prices stay higher than they would be if companies moved production offshore. This creates a dilemma in the sense that if the production is cheaper abroad than it is at home, then moving production abroad could allow the U.S. to focus on what we're more efficient in producing or servicing. This would allow us to gain more from trade than we would have initially while creating jobs in countries that are generally much more poor than the U.S. So there is definitely a big pull between the pros and cons of immigration.
ReplyDeleteI think jobs are created more if we have educated immigrants in the country. Plus, by the H10 Law if Immigration, obviously the US assset will go up if these people want to move here.
ReplyDeleteImmigration definitely helps countries. It is no different than the basic economics case for trade in goods and services. In fact Benjamin Powell in his article "an economic case for immigration"(http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2010/Powellimmigration.html) argues that
ReplyDelete1. Immigrants are not a drag on the economy , in fact even according to the most conservative estimates they provide a benefit of $22Bn to the economy.
2.They dont take the natives jobs.It is simply the process of creative destruction in the economy which guides the market just as baby boomers and women supplemented the econonmy in the 1960's
First, I'd like to say thank you for posting this - it is a far more insightful and educated stance on immigration than we usually see. Immigrants have long been the core of American growth. In response to Sikendar's comment - the baby boomers are a particularly useful analogy in that immigrants are especially necessary now as we will soon see a ballooning retirement age community exiting the work force.
ReplyDeleteThis article provides a very different (and interesting) outlook on immigration. At a time like this, foreigners wanting to do business in the US are more likely to arrive with an optimistic attitude and help stir up the economy with creativity, job creation and bring up companies to compete with international standards. They will not be as afraid to spend and are more likely to invest in the economy. Immigration is likely to open up the global markets for the US, bring new home buyers and increase tax revenue. Foreigners come to the US and take away skills (in the form of education) to another country rather than use it to improve the economic force here and create more jobs. This article really does give a different perspective on the issue.
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