Do illegal immigrants take jobs from American citizens or depress wages?

[CommonSenseDemocrat]

Do illegal immigrants take jobs from American citizens or depress wages?

17 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Take jobs away from Americans, but do not depress wages for Americans
	0 (0%)
	Both take jobs away and depress wages for Americans
	9 (53%)
	Depress wages, but don't take jobs away from Americans
	1 (6%)
	Neither depress wages nor take jobs away from Americans
	5 (29%)
	Other
	2 (12%)
	Don't Know
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[Iggo]

1. No. That would be employers.

[Scootaloo]

5. Right there

The exploitation of migrant workers is what suppresses wages, not the workers themselves.

[roody]

9. +1

[dumbcat]

2. No, because that would be agreeing with RWNJ

talking points. We shouldn't do that.

[hobbit709]

3. Ask 2 out 3 of Trump's wives.

[cheapdate]

4. There is little doubt that under the present system,

immigrants depress wages in some industries and trades, particularly certain construction trades.

Even so, the overall net economic impact of immigration remains neutral to slightly positive, when the total positive and negative impacts are considered comprehensively.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. It depends...

In my area, immigrants do the work that won't be done by locals. Primarily agricultural and construction jobs.

Some locals can't do the work, some don't want to, and even if everyone wanted to and could, there aren't enough of them to fill all the jobs.

As far as wages go, employers are as cheap as they can get away with. The local Stop&Shop is begging for people to work for the princely sum of $8.25 an hour and can't fill all the openings. That has nothing to do with immigration.

[FSogol]

7. Blaming immigrants for actions of Republican businessmen and RW corporations?

[hunter]

8. No, scummy employers and pathetically weak labor laws do.

Not one lick of difference between a U.S. citizen and an immigrant, except that the immigrants are underpaid and abused.

Yes, big Silicon Valley employers tend to be just as rotten as many big Agriculture employers, treating immigrants as a disposable workforce.

[LanternWaste]

10. Workers do not 'take' jobs; rather, workers are offered jobs and from that, accept or decline.

Workers do not 'take' jobs; rather, workers are offered jobs and from that, either accept or decline the offer. It's difficult for me to vote one way or another when presented with a Flawed Premise.

[YoungDemCA]

23. +1. No one is entitled to any particular job

nt

[Zorra]

11. "Illegal" immigrants?

[yuiyoshida]

13. +1

[treestar]

12. the undocumented may depress wages

in that the employers can exploit them without fear of being reported to the DOL where the employee is afraid to do that because they could be deported.

It would be better to allow them to work legally - change our laws - so they were on even keel with US workers so to speak and could enforce their rights. Then they'd be no more exploitable and thus not more desirable, to such employers.

They can also add to the number of jobs by spending their earnings here. They are obviously going to stimulate the economy and buy from citizens.

[lumberjack_jeff]

18. Spending their earnings here? I assume you're speaking hypothetically.

Remittances to latin america (citizens working abroad sending their wages home) were $65 billion last year.

Labor is Mexico's biggest export.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. Yes. They are notorious for demanding to be paid less money.

"I won't take more than $5 per hour!""

[lumberjack_jeff]

15. Both, of course.

Last edited Fri Jan 15, 2016, 02:08 PM - Edit history (1)

We have no trouble recognizing the impact that 800,000 H1B visa holders have on the wages and employment in the technology field, but get all weak in the knees when it's time to consider the impact 12 million illegal aliens have on blue collar workers.

If nothing else, wages paid to workers get sent home, right? Better for the US economy if that home is in the US, $65 billion was sent to latin america as remittances - foreign immigrants sending their earnings home.



You know those signs you see in the storefronts of small businesses? "Spending money here keeps your dollars in your community"? That is only true if the employees consider that community home.

Complaining about inequality is as useful as pissing into the ocean if we're not going to take action to promote the interests of the american working class.

Taking american jobs? Here's the labor force participation rate for the last 40 or so years.


Here's the illegal alien population since 1990


I think we can agree that they're coming here for work, right? One of two things explains the drop in the workforce participation rate: either there are fewer jobs or they are they are going to foreign workers.

[KamaAina]

16. Protip: DU is not a very good place to post Faux talking points

[The2ndWheel]

17. It's a combination of everything

And each thing reinforces every other thing, even if they're not directly tied together. Unfortunately, there's no easy or simple answer, otherwise it would've been done by now.

[LittleBlue]

19. Unless they come to start a business and hire Americans for living wages

Then logically they must. Ultimately those responsible for this are congress and the president, who neither enforce our immigration laws nor raise the minimum wage.

[Bradical79]

20. yes and no

There's a lot of variety in those who tend to be lumped together as "illegal" immigrants. Like some are people brought over as children and are American in every way aside from documentation, others might be victims of trafficking and forced labor, some are legitimately refugees fleeing extreme violence in their home countries, some might be drug smugglers, some might just be looking to send money back home, etc.

I would say yes, some are certainly part of depressing wages, though it's hard to blame someone for wanting to improve their life. I tend to place more blame on employers engaging in illegal wage depression. Another (legal) factor that doesn't get much attention in talk about jobs are prisoners being used as cheap employees too.

[YoungDemCA]

21. Show me the empirical evidence that "illegal" immigrants do either of those things

And I'll show you that Santa Claus is real, Elvis is alive, and Paul McCartney is dead.

If you want nativism and xenophobia, the Republican Party is a better fit for you.

[lumberjack_jeff]

22. Okay.

http://www.cream-migration.org/publ_uploads/CDP_11_07.pdf

They do the latter by doing the former.