Immigration Isn’t Dying as an Issue

More Misinformation from the Media:

Fertility rates have essentially collapsed throughout Latin America. . . . That explains why the wave of Mexican immigration has evaporated. And while migration pressure from Central America in a sense has replaced the Mexican cohort, that entire region has a third of Mexico’s population. . . . [T]he fear of “immigrants stealing jobs” was always a myth, and it will disappear in years to come. Instead, we will worry about a low-skill shortage and bemoan inflation in labor-intensive sectors, especially agriculture. – Immigration Is a Dying Issue, Tim Kane, CNN, 10/9/16

Fact Check: The message is that illegal immigration is down so it’s no longer something to worry about. It is less than what it was before the Great Recession, but it’s beginning to rebound. During the past two years it has risen 57 percent. While the birth rate in Mexico and Central America has declined, there are still plenty of people there and elsewhere who are inclined to move here.

And a number of possible developments could push the number higher. One is political and social instability. Mexico has made economic progress, but the continuing power of drug cartels in the country suggests that law and order could break down at some time and send many people fleeing north. Another possibility, particularly if Hillary Clinton is elected president, is the U.S. passing an amnesty for the illegal aliens now living here. That would send an invitation for more foreigners to trying their luck at breaking our laws and winning the amnesty jackpot.

The notion that we must have a never-ending flow of cheap low-skilled workers to man our economy is itself a myth. We have high unemployment among low-skilled Americans, and immigration harms those who have work by depressing their wages. Furthermore, the claim of a unskilled labor shortage is becoming even less tenable as we move into a new world of automation. A study done at Oxford University estimates that within the next two decades nearly half the jobs in the U.S. now done by people will be automated. Even a great deal of farm work will be done by machines.

This article focuses on illegal immigration, and that isn’t surprising. It can make no case at all that legal immigration is dying as an issue. That flow of immigrants continues unhindered at the highest sustained level in our history—averaging a million a year for the past two decades.

Many in the media don’t want the American people to concern themselves about immigration, legal or illegal. They want the status quo to continue.          

 

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