Weird Republic
Apr. 12th, 2007 06:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cryowizardSteven Camarota, research director of the Center for Immigration Studies, has authored a well-documented report titled “Immigration from Mexico: Assessing the Impact on the United States” which relies heavily on U.S. census information. This study demolishes the smug assertions of Vicente Fox and George Bush.
First of all, America is not in dire need of unskilled workers; immigration from Mexico is not necessary. The bracero program that admitted Mexican agricultural workers from 1943 until 1964 was not necessary to ensure food production; it was a union busting tactic. If the demand for labor exceeded the supply, then the wages of unskilled Americans would be increasing. In truth, the wages of poorly educated full-time workers declined 7.2 percent in the 1990s even as the wages of other workers increased. Mexican immigrants, legal and illegal, do not compete with professors, journalists or business big wigs, but they do make it harder for working-class Americans to make a living. The very existence of the bracero program jump started a parallel flow of illegal migration that continues to this day. We can stop calling them “guest workers.” As one analyst observed: “There is nothing more permanent than a temporary worker.”
Worse yet, the presence of so many unskilled workers retards the development of more efficient harvesting and processing machinery in exactly the same way that the presence of slaves in the old South retarded the development of industry in the South. At the time of the Civil War one northern state, NewYork, had three times the industrial capacity than all of the states of the Confederacy combined. The cheap-labor pool in the South kept the South under developed and comparatively impoverished. Without modernization American growers will not be able to compete with low-wage commercial producers in foreign countries. Increases in our minimum wage make that a certainty.
The second myth of Mexican immigration is that these folks are contributing more in taxes than they are consuming in social services. It’s not true. Virtually all of these people are in the bottom 50% of taxpayers and the bottom 50% of taxpayers contribute no more than 4% of the revenues collected. Many Mexican sneak-ins pay no income taxes at all. These same Mexicans are heavy users of means-tested social programs. Using estimates from the National Academy of Sciences it was discovered that the average adult Mexican immigrant consumes $55,200 more in services than he contributes in taxes during his lifetime. Now multiply that by all the millions of adult Mexican immigrants in America. It’s a fact: 33.9 percent of families headed by legal Mexican immigrants and 24.9 percent of families headed by illegal Mexican aliens are enrolled in at lease one major welfare program. Only 14.8 percent of American families are similarly consuming the earnings of taxpayers.
Now consider the fact that the illegal alien population indulges in relentless identity theft, fraud and imposture and the fact that the illegal immigrant population is a haven for countless felons, including hundreds of thousands of sex criminals, and the staggering social cost to America is exposed. Suddenly a push to modernize American agriculture looks socially responsible. Years ago, when migrant Mexican grape harvesters began agitating for big-bucks union wages the grape growers responded by funding the development of grape harvesting machinery. Now there are no Mexican grape harvesters. If corn was harvested by Mexicans, instead of by machinery, there would be no talk of ethanol as a fuel for vehicles; it would be far too expensive. Money sent south by Mexicans living in America is Mexico’s second largest source of income; that’s billions of dollars leaving the American economy each year.
Full article here
First of all, America is not in dire need of unskilled workers; immigration from Mexico is not necessary. The bracero program that admitted Mexican agricultural workers from 1943 until 1964 was not necessary to ensure food production; it was a union busting tactic. If the demand for labor exceeded the supply, then the wages of unskilled Americans would be increasing. In truth, the wages of poorly educated full-time workers declined 7.2 percent in the 1990s even as the wages of other workers increased. Mexican immigrants, legal and illegal, do not compete with professors, journalists or business big wigs, but they do make it harder for working-class Americans to make a living. The very existence of the bracero program jump started a parallel flow of illegal migration that continues to this day. We can stop calling them “guest workers.” As one analyst observed: “There is nothing more permanent than a temporary worker.”
Worse yet, the presence of so many unskilled workers retards the development of more efficient harvesting and processing machinery in exactly the same way that the presence of slaves in the old South retarded the development of industry in the South. At the time of the Civil War one northern state, NewYork, had three times the industrial capacity than all of the states of the Confederacy combined. The cheap-labor pool in the South kept the South under developed and comparatively impoverished. Without modernization American growers will not be able to compete with low-wage commercial producers in foreign countries. Increases in our minimum wage make that a certainty.
The second myth of Mexican immigration is that these folks are contributing more in taxes than they are consuming in social services. It’s not true. Virtually all of these people are in the bottom 50% of taxpayers and the bottom 50% of taxpayers contribute no more than 4% of the revenues collected. Many Mexican sneak-ins pay no income taxes at all. These same Mexicans are heavy users of means-tested social programs. Using estimates from the National Academy of Sciences it was discovered that the average adult Mexican immigrant consumes $55,200 more in services than he contributes in taxes during his lifetime. Now multiply that by all the millions of adult Mexican immigrants in America. It’s a fact: 33.9 percent of families headed by legal Mexican immigrants and 24.9 percent of families headed by illegal Mexican aliens are enrolled in at lease one major welfare program. Only 14.8 percent of American families are similarly consuming the earnings of taxpayers.
Now consider the fact that the illegal alien population indulges in relentless identity theft, fraud and imposture and the fact that the illegal immigrant population is a haven for countless felons, including hundreds of thousands of sex criminals, and the staggering social cost to America is exposed. Suddenly a push to modernize American agriculture looks socially responsible. Years ago, when migrant Mexican grape harvesters began agitating for big-bucks union wages the grape growers responded by funding the development of grape harvesting machinery. Now there are no Mexican grape harvesters. If corn was harvested by Mexicans, instead of by machinery, there would be no talk of ethanol as a fuel for vehicles; it would be far too expensive. Money sent south by Mexicans living in America is Mexico’s second largest source of income; that’s billions of dollars leaving the American economy each year.
Full article here
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no subject
Date: 2007-04-13 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-13 02:05 pm (UTC)http://www.theonion.com/content/video/immigration_the_human_cost
no subject
Date: 2007-04-13 02:32 pm (UTC)Do I have to be conservative to want people to sign a guest book when they get into the country? I have nothing against Mexicans working here -- but legally, like everyone else, and without being a financial burden on us.
What also pisses me off is that (see above) people from Europe are constantly barred from entering using any reasons possible. This imbalance is strange and seems to reflect totally skewed policies.