[Marxism] Anti-Immigrant Coalition Misstates Immigration’s Impact upon African American Workers [rebu ttal]

[Mike Friedman]

Anti-Immigrant Coalition Misstates Immigration’s Impact upon African
American Workers - VIDEO
March 18, 2008 (Click on our YouTube video below!)

FALSE CLAIMS:

“Studies show that immigration accounts for 40% of the decline in the
employment of black men.”

“Mass immigration” is also the cause of a “decline in black wages.”

FACTS:

The advertisement from the “Coalition for the Future American Worker”
(CFAW) cites a single disputed and misleading source regarding the impact
of immigration upon African American employment and wages. In selectively
citing to one study (while referencing “studies”), the advertisement
ignores an overwhelming body of economic research that shows that
immigrants in fact have positive or neutral impacts upon employment and
wages in the U.S.

The President’s Council of Economic Advisers recently found that it “is
difficult to detect” any negative effect of immigration upon average wages
for native workers.1The Council, which is comprised of many of the
nation’s top economists, concluded that immigrants tend to complement (not
substitute for) native workers and raise natives’ productivity and
income.2

Similarly, Dr. David Card, a researcher and economist at the University of
California, has found that cities with large immigrant populations reflect
little wage difference when compared with cities with few immigrants.3
CFAW ignores this scholarly study, which may be found on the same website
(the National Bureau of Economic Research) to which it cites in support of
its divisive, nativist rhetoric.

Dr. Steven Pitts, an economist at the Center for Labor Research and
Education at the University of California, in 2006 found there is also no
correlation between rising rates of immigration and unemployment among
African Americans:

Since 1965, there has been a steady rise in the proportion of immigrants
in the United States.If there were a link between the presence of
immigrants and black employment, we would see black unemployment rates
increasing as immigration increases. However, there is no correlation.4

Dr. Pitts has stated that blaming immigration masks the true causes of
employment concerns for African Americans, which are “persistent racism in
hiring ... and incarceration.”5

Dr. Pitts concludes that “[r]ather than pit immigrants against black
workers, it would be much more useful [to U.S.-born workers] to promote
policies that will transform low-wage jobs into better jobs for all
workers.”6  CFAW’s advertisement and published materials avoid discussion
of any barriers to high-wage employment faced by African American workers
in favor of a misleading and divisive focus upon immigration.

The Economist, an internationally respected magazine of economics and
politics, recently concluded its examination of immigration’s effect upon
wages by declaring that “[i]f Congress wants to reduce wage inequality,
building border walls is a bad way of going about it.”7 CFAW would seem to
disagree.

In selectively citing a single, disputed and misleading source while
ignoring a significant body of authoritative research that counters its
nativist and divisive position, the Coalition for the Future American
Worker presents a biased and false view of the role of immigrants in the
U.S. economy and workforce. In fact, CFAW deliberately misinforms the
American public in attempting to turning people, especially African
Americans, against immigrants and Latinos. This is a deplorable tactic
that contributes to racial tensions in America while attempting to stifle
rational debate on immigration policy.

The Coalition for the Future American Worker, it should be noted, includes
organizations that have been designated “anti-immigrant groups” and/or
“hate groups” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors and
exposes organizations and individuals that foment racial hatred in the
United States. See www.splcenter.org

________________________
1. Council of Economic Advisers, “Immigration’s Economic Impact,” June 20,
2007
2. Id.
3. Dr. David Card, “Is the New Immigration Really So Bad?” NBER Working
Paper 11547, August 2005.
4. Dr. Steven Pitts, “On Labor Day: Don’t Pit Immigrants Against Black
Workers,” San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 3, 2007, D5
5. Mary O’Leary, “Blacks losing jobs to illegals? Alderman calls claim
‘ludicrous’,” New Hampshire Register, Jan 27, 2008
6. Pitts, supra note 4.
7. “Myths and Migration,” The Economist, April 6, 2006