{"id":1928859,"date":"2023-05-11T10:57:33","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T14:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/its-past-time-to-prioritize-skills-based-immigration\/"},"modified":"2023-05-11T11:04:06","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T15:04:06","slug":"its-past-time-to-prioritize-skills-based-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/its-past-time-to-prioritize-skills-based-immigration\/","title":{"rendered":"Prioritize skills-based immigration now."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">8<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fits-past-time-to-prioritize-skills-based-immigration%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1928859&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Is Immigration Really Depressing American Workers\u2019 Wages?<\/h2>\n<p>The pandemic emergency measure Title 42, enacted by the Trump administration to deter illegal immigration, is set to expire on May 11, and the Biden administration expects rising crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. American businesses may embrace this influx of immigrant labor with open arms because they often cite a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/starbucks-workers-in-buffalo-unionize-placing-executives-on-edge-amid-labor-shortage\/\" title=\"Starbucks Workers In Buffalo Unionize, Placing Executives On Edge Amid Labor Shortage\">persistent labor shortage<\/a> as their top concern and insist they need immigrants to do the jobs Americans won\u2019t do.<\/p>\n<h3>Are American Workers Really Unwilling to Do Certain Jobs?<\/h3>\n<p>In a recent piece, Oren Cass at American Compass argues that American workers would do any job if the wages were high enough. He accuses greedy businesses and the availability of low-wage immigrant workers of causing decades of wage stagnation for American workers. Thus, he advocates for skill-based immigration reform to help American workers secure good-paying jobs. While some of his ideas make sense, others deserve scrutiny.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cass wrote, \u201cFrom 1972 to 2022, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democratic-congressman-wants-patriot-tax-for-wealthy-americans\/\" title=\"Democratic Congressman Wants \u2018Patriot Tax\u2019 For Wealthy Americans\">real corporate profits<\/a> per capita rose 185%. GDP per capita rose 141%. Productivity rose 135%. The average hourly wage for production and nonsupervisory workers rose 1%.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Allison Schrager, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, called the wage stagnation claims \u201cmisleading\u201d because they \u201crely on the CPI-U (Consumer Price Index of Urban Consumers) measure of inflation \u2026 the CPI-U assumes larger inflation than the average household experiences \u2026 [and] makes stagnation seem worse than it is.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Michael Strain at the American Enterprise Institute concurred. His analysis shows American workers\u2019 wages were not stagnant: \u201cUsing July 1990 as the base period, average real wages using the CPI grew by 21 percent over the three-decade period ending in February 2022. Real wages grew by 39 percent using the PCE [personal consumption expenditure price index].\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Do Immigrants Really Depress American Workers\u2019 Wages?<\/h3>\n<p>Although the claim of wage stagnation is questionable, Cass is correct to state that \u201cimmigration is a form of population growth\u201d and America\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-twice-deported-illegal-alien-charged-with-drawing-swastikas-on-dcs-union-station\/\" title=\"Report: Twice-Deported Illegal Alien Charged With Drawing Swastikas On DC\u2019s Union Station\">current immigration policy<\/a> has flooded \u201cthe low end of the domestic labor market with foreign workers.\u201d It\u2019s Economics 101: An increase in supply (labor) drives down the price (wages).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Analysis from Harvard labor economist George Borjas demonstrates that immigrants (both legal and illegal) from 1990 to 2010 reduced the average annual earnings of American workers by $1,396 in the short run.<\/li>\n<li>Borjas\u2019 study found that the downward pressure on wages caused by new immigrants became negligible in the long run.<\/li>\n<li>Giovanni Peri, an economics professor at the University of California-Davis, found \u201clittle evidence of a wage-depressing effect of immigration because immigrants are absorbed into the receiving economy through a series of adjustments by firms and other workers. Once these adjustments are accounted for, the wages of native workers, even workers with skills similar to those of immigrants, do not change much in response to immigration.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What Factors Affect American Workers\u2019 Wages and Employment?<\/h3>\n<p>Cass also failed to recognize other factors that have nothing to do with immigrants but have affected American workers\u2019 employment.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>America has experienced a cultural shift, and labor-intensive jobs such as picking fruit, slaughtering chickens, and housekeeping are undesirable to even some of the poorest Americans.<\/li>\n<li>Our nation\u2019s generous welfare system and its relative ease of accessibility have created an unofficial minimum wage and an incentive for some American workers not to work.<\/li>\n<li>Our education system has failed to produce a sufficiently educated workforce.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What Is the Way Forward?<\/h3>\n<p>Cass proposes establishing a skills-based immigration policy and enforcing E-Verify, a system that validates workers\u2019 legal status.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/its-past-time-to-prioritize-skills-based-immigration\/\" title=\"Prioritize skills-based immigration now.\">actual skills-based immigration policy<\/a> should give preference to immigrants who possess the skills our economy needs the most, regardless of their potential wages.<\/li>\n<li>Canada and Australia, two nations that operate the most successful skills-based immigration in the world, rely on national occupation databases to track skills gaps in their economies, and both have benefited by welcoming low-wage and high-wage immigrants. The United States should do the same.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Given all these factors, blaming immigrants for depressing American workers\u2019 wages and employment opportunities is neither fair nor accurate. Our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/henry-cuellar-promises-to-fully-cooperate-with-the-fbi-after-they-search-his-texas-home\/\" title=\"Henry Cuellar Promises To \u2018Fully Cooperate\u2019 With The FBI After They Search His Texas Home\">ongoing southern border crisis<\/a> is a reminder that the time for immigration reform is now, and doing nothing is not an option. Immigration needs more debate on a national level and in the chambers of the U.S. Congress.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Author:<\/strong> Helen Raleigh, CFA, is an American entrepreneur, writer, and speaker. She&#8217;s a senior contributor at The Federalist. Her writings appear in other national media, including The Wall Street Journal and Fox News. Helen is the author of several books, including &#8220;Confucius Never Said&#8221; and \u201cBacklash: How Communist China&#8217;s Aggression Has Backfired.&#8221; Her latest book is the 2nd edition of \u201cThe Broken Welcome Mat: America\u2019s UnAmerican immigration policy, and how we should fix it.\u201d Follow her on Parler and Twitter: @HRaleighspeaks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title 42, a pandemic emergency measure enacted by the Trump administration to deter illegal immigration, is set to expire on May 11, and the Biden administration expects rising crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. American businesses may embrace this influx of immigrant labor with open arms because they often cite a persistent labor shortage as their<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":536,"featured_media":1928860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[3813,6878,10276,26468],"class_list":["post-1928859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-immigration","tag-now","tag-prioritize","tag-skills-based"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/536"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1928859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1928859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1928860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1928859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1928859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1928859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}