Part of the problem is the fact that illegal immigration depresses wages across a large swath of American employment. Not because illegals take the worst jobs but because they are part of the glut of people looking for jobs. It’s all a matter of supply and demand. Almost all businesses support this because it means employers can get by with paying their workers less, and providing them with less benefits in order to keep them, because people know they are expendable and replaceable.
When jobs are scarce, wages stagnate or fall. When workers are scarce, wages rise, as businesses are forced to compete for a finite labor pool.
What the proponents of illegal immigration don’t tell you is that an illegal immigrant may not be the one to take your job, statistically speaking he or she won’t, but what they will do is drive your wage down. All part of the reason that wages have stagnated for the last 35 years.
The great crime in all of this, is the economic and political forces conspiring against the average citizen, the blue collar people, working 9-5, struggling to make ends meet, to get even a part of the American Dream....
We’ve got politicians just eager for more loyal voters, we’ve got business looking for cheap labor, we’ve got unions looking to boost membership, and no where out there is the politician telling the people the truth, and defending our way of life.
So while business and government have colluded to export Americas wealth, and import its poverty, no one party is standing up for the majority. And that’s what’s so frightening and enraging, how, in a nation of 330 million, how alone we truly are.
I have a master's degree in economics, labor economics was my specialty.
A very common hint given to companies seeking to locate to low labor cost areas is to look for places with military bases and large immigrant populations. It doesn't matter if military spouses and immigrants are even qualified to do the job-- their mere presence in the labor force will hold down the wages for all jobs across the board.