Pro Immigration Essay

711 Words2 Pages

Immigration Immigration has become one of the most controversial issues in American politics. Following the election of Donald Trump, the nation has been divided on the legal, moral and economic motivations of changes to immigration policy. In order to more fully understand the issue, one should consider the economic research that has been done on this topic. There are many complex facets of this debate and arguments from both sides should be considered. In the most basic terms, immigration means more workers in the labor pool competing for the same amount of jobs. Simple labor economics would suggest this movement would lower wages on account of an increase in the demand for work. This effect has been discussed for decades by economists like Fernando Di Avila who said immigration’s “effect on wages is not difficult to see, namely, the tendency to lower wages” (De Avila 1). This is not the full story when examining the statistics. A study published in the Journal of the European Economic Association found that “the period from 1990 to 2006 immigration had a small positive effect on average native wages (+0.6%) and a substantial negative effect (−6.7%) on wages of previous immigrants in the long run” (Ottaviano 1). These findings give pause to the traditional way of thinking, which is espoused by certain nativist/isolationist political candidates. Wages actually went up for native laborers. The largest effect was seen on other immigrants, who would be competing with the new migrants for the same sorts of jobs. Many argue …show more content…

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