Debunking the Myth of the Job-Stealing Immigrant

&quot;Logically, if immigrants were “stealing” jobs, so would every young person leaving school and entering the job market&quot;<p>It&#x27;s bizarre that people don&#x27;t see this. Anyone concerned about immigrants is surely, logically, also concerned about people having babies. But somehow people think that limiting birthrates as a bad thing and limiting immigration is a good thing. Just a complete inconsistency.

Kausfiles is one of the best sites that advocates against illegal immigration from a liberal perspective. <a href="http://www.kausfiles.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kausfiles.com</a><p>Most of us don&#x27;t compete in the lower end of the market. Those who do are negatively effected.

He may be right that the overall affect of immigrants is positive, but the benefits go to people who are already doing well and the costs are paid by the people at the bottom. I don&#x27;t see how anyone can complain about about income inequality on the one hand and advocate unrestricted immigration on the other.<p>The US should adopt Australia&#x27;s point system based approach with a preference for the young and well educated.

&gt;<i>And yet the economic benefits of immigration may be the ­most ­settled fact in economics. A recent University of Chicago poll of leading economists could not find a single one who rejected the proposition.</i><p>Sure, but the University of Chicago is full of neo-liberals, of course they&#x27;d say that. Economics is more of an ideology with some math thrown in for taste, than a hard science.

This thread isn&#x27;t going to be productive, so in HN spirit, I would like to propose a side project for anyone interested:<p>- Develop a tool that monitor front page of HN<p>- Train a classifier that detect immigration topic<p>- Automatically post a well explained comment for your side of the debate<p>- Make it open source so the other side can have one.

Every set of hands comes with a mouth also. Immigrants increase the supply of labor but also the demand for what labor produces.<p>Perhaps the confusion arises because the immigrant does not necessarily purchase goods and services produced in their new country. We all work in a global economy were its impossible to follow all of the transactions between what we produce and what we consume. That would be true even if nothing ever crossed international borders.

So the same companies that conspire to suppress wages in every other way are pushing for an immigration policy that does the opposite? Um, no.

I didn&#x27;t see anything new in this article, it pretty much rehashed the same arguments I&#x27;ve seen since forever. I feel like the low-skill, repetitive nature of the work of a pro-immigration NYT columnist makes it specially suited for cost-saving through automation or outsourcing. The field seems ripe for disruption, any takers?

Those generally shilling for illegal immigration are the ones getting benefit of cheap labor not competing in the manual labor market. You increase supply the price you can charge plummets. Pretty easy to understand.

ooh boy, trickle down immigration!<p>Really though they do take jobs. It just depends on where you are in the job world how affected you are. Where I am we end up with a lot of people from India, a lot because some of the contract companies we use are owned by immigrants, now naturalized, or the like. Still they are displacing a good number of natural born. I am all for their immigration, they bring good skills and a great work ethic which is lost on a lot of people born here.<p>Looking south of the border, the damage here is that low skilled low pay jobs will get filled likely by those who come to work. Whether they displace natural born citizens is another thing, the difference is the later likely qualifies for more assistance programs and have been on them to the point of dependance.<p>Make no excuse though, the push for integration of the large influx from Mexico and Central America is business oriented. They want these people as they are coming to work jobs many already here turn their noses up at. That some will become dependent on the government makes both parties salivate, that they cause concern to people of both parties doesn&#x27;t hurt either

&quot;Of course foreigners steal your job, but maybe, if someone without contacts, money, or speaking the language steals your job, you&#x27;re shit.&quot; ~ Louis C. K.<p>As one of those people stealing your jobs. I agree. And I don&#x27;t even have to be on-site to do it. Because internet is awesome.

More shilling for cheap labor. Articles like this are the left-wing equivalent of climate-change denial. &quot;Unlimited immigration has literally no consequences but rainbows and sunshine!&quot;