Minimum Wage - Immigration

By and large, we in the U.S. are proud of our country and are happy to share our bounteous blessings and dreams with people from other lands. After all, we are a nation of immigrants and owe a good portion of our exceptionalism to the best and brightest and decent and hardworking people who have immigrated here.

Our challenge, then, isn't with reasonable immigration policies or the millions of people who have legally flocking to our shores over the years. Rather, it is with the millions of people who have, perhaps unintentionally, disrespected our generosity, flaunted our laws, put undue burden on our economy, and in some ways placed our nation at risk.

Nearly 5% of the U.S. population has resided here illegally. Because of the economic and political strain this puts on our country, it is expected that each election cycle would be devoted, in part, to debating and solving this growing problem, the last five or so years being no exception.

And, while the down economy for the last half decade has made it somewhat less attractive for illegals to come here, and may have even encourage some to leave, nevertheless there are non-immigration policies currently under consideration by liberals that could inadvertently reverse this emigration trend while still making the economy worse.

As a general rule, labor tends to follow capital--meaning, that employees will likely migrate to where they have the ability and potential to make the most money. For example, the minimum wage in Mexico is $.61 hr. (in U.S. dollars), and the minimum wage in the U.S. is currently $7.25. (See HERE) Economically, this creates an enormous incentive for employees in Mexico to migrate to the U.S., even given the down economy and 18% unemployment rate among unskilled workers (see HERE).

In principle, the same holds true for laborers in other third-world or emerging countries.

Statistical evidence supports this claim: "Going back to 2009, when President Obama took office, [which is the last year that the minimum wage was increased--see HERE] Rubenstein’s found that foreign-born employment increased by 1.65 million workers or 7.6 percent while during the same period native-born employment rose only by 26,000 or 0.02 percent. (See HERE)

With this in mind, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what may well happen if the liberals get their way and raise the minimum wage to $10 or $15 an hour.

Granted, some liberals have argued that the jobs taken by illegals and other immigrants are jobs that Americans don't want and wont do. So, what's the problem? However, leaders in the African-American community disagree, and contend that jobs are being taken away from poor citizens, particularly within the inner cities. (See HERE and HERE)

Either way, immigration (legal and otherwise) causes unemployment (see HERE), which is all we need when joblessness in the U.S. is still a major concern, and even more so among minimum wage workers. (See HERE)

The unintended consequence here, then, is that as liberals make a pretense of resolving illegal immigration on the one hand, they may unwittingly exacerbate the immigration and economic problems on the other hand by raising the minimum wage.

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For an explanation as to why these Leftist LUNCs may occur, please see: Gov: Wrong Tool for the Right Job - Introduction and Cold Nanny as well as The Politics of Compassion, Emotions, Ignorance, Denial, Blame-Shifting, and Victimization