Illegal immigration or legal, it has to be watched.
THere is also the problem that when illegal immigrants flood into an area, wages become depressed relative to when there are none.
Problem is, even when immigration is legal (and I DO support legal immigration), if employers game the system, it can depress wages as well:
Jobs Americans Won't Do? [Mark Krikorian]
Another WaPo sob story about a firm desperate for more H-1B visas. The Baltimore company's CEO says "We offer the same salaries and perks whether you're from Baltimore or Bangladesh . . . but we simply cannot find enough qualified U.S.-born staff to fuel our growth."
My profession, computer tech, keeps saying the same thing - it needs more legal immigration. However, continue on to see how it has put itself into a pickle in this regard and it did it to itself.
Well, John Miano, a Fellow with my Center, took a look for me at the "Labor Condition Applications" that the company filed with the Department of Labor to receive its H-1B workers. Lo and behold, the average H-1B wage for architects at this particular firm is about $45,000, compared with the average for all architects in Baltimore of about $69,000.
So, by gaming the legal immigration process, this firm has gained an advantage over the competition (all other things remaining equal). My, my, no wonder they want more cheaper sources of labor!
Back to my field; certainly, highly educated and motivated folks have come to work in this field.. Yet, as the industry started to outsource programmers and others, it started to provide a disincentive for younger folks to spend the time and energy to get engineering degrees. After all, who wants to spend that amount of time, money, and tears just to end up like a feminist lit grad or a theater major stuck with a mantra of "I will be your server tonight". So now the high tech companies cry in their silicon that not enough Americans want to do those jobs. Of course not - not at a similar wage differential as above!So while it may be true that the company pays its foreign contract labor the same as its American workers, it seems to be paying all its architects 35 percent less than the market average. It's no wonder they can't find enough American workers. But why is it government's job to help this business avoid adjusting to market realities?
We've had Mark on Meet The New Press before - perhaps it is time to have him back on!
