Do the public immigration platforms of the Democratic and Republican parties make sense? I've been wondering that for years without resolution. Perhaps you can help me?
Folks-
This post has nothing whatsoever to do with anything timely. It’s just something I’ve been thinking about for a long time without coming to a conclusion. I expect it to be incendiary, and to be misunderstood. Before taking offense, please finish reading the diary entry.
Have you ever looked at two people you know well debating a point and asked yourself why they took the positions they did? Perhaps it seems that the two of them really should trade positions in order to be more consistent with other opinions that they hold.
The immigration positions of the Democratic and Republican parties of the U.S. strike me this way, and here’s why:
When you have liberalized immigration into a country you will almost certainly glut the market for labor. In other words, you will have a situation where there are more people looking for jobs than there are jobs available for them. In a market-based economy, this will have the tendency of causing the price or cost of labor to go down (this means that wages go down,) and reducing the power of labor while increasing the power of employers. (While we are seeing a labor glut in the U.S. right now, it has nothing to do with immigration. Yes, I do understand that. However, increased immigration right now really could make the situation here worse.)
That would be my elevator lecture version of the effects of immigration on wages.
So, why does it seem that the two major political parties of the United States have taken their respective positions? The Republicans, ostensibly for the employers, have staked out a position of near xenophobia, doing everything possible to publicly seal the borders of the United States. Democrats, theoretically the labor party, seem to be courting immigrants in every election. Shouldn’t these positions be reversed?
It appears to me that by staking themselves out as the Anti-Immigration Party, Republicans have taken a stance that could put their corporate constituency at a disadvantage in labor negotiations (H1-b visas notwithstanding.) The Democrats, in much the same way, seem to have sold their union followers up the river by encouraging liberalized immigration to compete for the jobs of their base supporters.
Now, it is possible that I have misinterpreted these positions. Perhaps there is something more subtle going on here. But I’ve been looking at the problem for some time now without seeing it. I would welcome any comments that would clarify the issue for me.