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

[Ruthless Critic of All that Exists]

On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 7:49 AM, Mike Friedman <mikedf at amnh.org> wrote:

>
>  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


Did the Council of Economic Advisers study look at all immigrants or
just documented immigrants? Documented immigrants are usually
high-wage and before hiring a documented immigrant, a US employer
actually has to certify that they couldn't find a qualified US citizen
to hire for the job. I don't think anyone has ever claimed that
documented immigrants have hurt African-American (or other native
workers') wages.

Also, it is curious why Marxists should trust bourgeois economists
serving in a ruling-class body like the President's Council of
Economic Advisers! Do we trust them on other matters? If we grant that
such bodies serve ruling-class interests, why is it anathema to think
that the ruling class profit  might actually benefit from immigrants
putting downward pressure on wages, and that they miht have vested
interests for reaching the conclusions they did?