Do Unskilled Immigrants Hurt the Economy?

Do Unskilled Immigrants Hurt the Economy?

There have been many controversial debates over if immigration is "good" for the economy and writer Steven Malanga believes that the arrival of these unskilled workers into the United States has come at a larger cost to the public. In regards to immigration Malanga believes that "Immigration can only pay off again for America if we reshape our policy..." In this instance, when Malanga is referring to "again" he is speaking in reference to the Great Migration and how while it may have helped our economy 100 years ago, that our policies need to be updated based on how society is today. Malanga says that supporters of immigration commonly base their arguments on misconceptions between the original great migration and the current migration of immigrants to America. During this time period immigrants were a valuable workforce because "the newly arriving immigrant nonagricultural work force...was (slightly) more skilled than the resident American workforce". During this time period immigrants were able to provide suitable labor, and had to work for everything because there were no social programs or welfare for immigrants. It was the lack of the social services that made immigrants rely heavily on family and friends. This lack was also the reason why the majority of immigrants that came over were men and when the economy was facing problems they returned home.

Currently, all of the older quotas on immigration have been eliminated and some new policies have taken form. Due to issues with civil rights, the American government removed the immigration quota allowing more immigrants to come into the U.S. which caused a high volume of people moving into the country. With so many people coming to the United States, the workforce increased but not for the better. Many of the immigrants coming into the country had below average educations, because of the low education level businesses are able to exploit the workers with low wages. As a result of paying low wages, some companies were not updating with more efficient technologies and have fallen behind the times. In addition to education and wage issues, future issues are increased immigration due to family members being brought into the country. As a result of more people coming into the country wages can continue to be pushed down and native born Americans will suffer as a result of this. Inevitably, based on a larger population, social programs and welfare will eventually increase because of the low paying wages that the workforce is competing over and will become a burden to society.

However, Diana Furchtgott-Roth has a different view on immigration and believes that the inflow of immigrants to America is useful. In The Case for Immigration Roth uses evidence from a study done by Professor Giovanni Peri which says that immigration does not cause

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