Driving Down the Wages of American Workers Mass immigration drives down wages in the United States and increases profits to business owners and shareholders. Harvard economist George Borjas has calculated that immigration drives down wages in the U.S. by $ 152 BIllion on an annual basis. The wage income of many American workers has been depressed through the competition of immigrant workers. The standard of living and quality of life of many Americans are reduced as their earnings are decreased. American industries seek to continuously reduce labor costs by lowering wages for certain occupations. An abundant lower cost labor supply is provided by immigrant workers. Immigrants will work for less than Americans. Immigrant workers expect less in terms of earnings and standard of living than American citizens or immigrants who have arrived earlier. Immigrants from third world countries don’t expect to live the same lifestyle as a union card carrying American worker. From this simple truth arises the fallacy and slander that “immigrants do the jobs Americans won’t do”.
The statement “there is some work that Americans won’t do.” is one of the lies that mass immigration proponents spread. That statement slanders all hardworking Americans. The truth is that Americans have built the largest economy in the world and the most powerful nation in history. From colonial days to the present time Americans have done whatever jobs needed to be done.
Certainly immigrants have come to America to work and help build the nation but American citizens have taken every occupation that offered paying jobs including harvesting fruit and vegetables, working in restaurants and slaughterhouses, performing as domestic servants and manning construction sites. Mass immigration proponents would have people believe that America always imported workers to do the difficult jobs that need to be done. Prior to the immigration explosion of the last 25 years
Americans did the work needed to be done in this nation. Although champions of mass immigration and open borders would have Americans believe that the U.S. must import workers to do work that Americans refuse to do, the reality is very different. In areas of the U.S. that have received large numbers of immigrants certain industries and employment sectors have been
taken over by immigrant workers. However in areas of the nation that have received less immigration (primarily rural and small town America) one will see Americans doing all the jobs that Americans supposedly refuse to do. On a trip to much of America not yet inundated with massive immigration, a visitor will see Americans working as short order cooks, dishwashers, waiters and buspeople in restaurants. One will see Americans employed as groundkeepers and housekeeping staff in
hotels, driving taxis and babysitting children, the list goes on. In the last 25 years as the numbers of immigrants increased each year, Americans in many industries were forced to compete with the newcomers in labor markets. This competition was first seen in the agriculture industry. Newly arrived immigrant workers would work harvesting agricultural products for less
money per hour than workers already empolyed in the industry. The new immigrants undercut the wages of other immigrants who had immigrated years before. This process is the law of supply and demand in action. As the labor supply increases the cost for the labor decreases. Wages decrease. Business owners understand this concept and many profit greatly through this mechanism. By this method, whole industry segments in most U.S. cities have seen their average hourly wage driven downward in real
terms as the workers have been replaced with immigrant labor ready to perform for less money. Wages have been reduced to the point where an American could not obtain the quality of life and standard of living that American workers have historically been able to obtain. Americans will do any job that needs to be done, and rightfully they expect to be able to provide
a quality of life at least equal to or better than the previous generation of Americans in similar occupations were able to provide for themselves and their families. Some American employers prefer immigrant workers. American employers find that immigrant workers, and especially recently arrived immigrants: - Will work for a lower wage than American Citizens or immigrants who have arrived earlier;
- Will accept working conditions that other workers would not accept;
- Will accept less in the form of benefits and “perks”;
- Are less likely to join unions and are more docile, this is especially true for illegal alien workers;
Entire segments of American industry are in a “race to the bottom” of the wage scale. Many employers compete with each other to locate, sometimes import, and employ workers who will work for a lower wage and in less
satisfactory conditions than their present employees. As one company in a business sector employs lower wage workers, pressures are exerted on their competitors to do the same.
Some specific business sectors that benefit from the lower cost labor provided by mass immigration include: - Agriculture
- Landscape and Gardening
- Meatpacking Industry
- Restaurants, Hotels
- Information Technology Industry (H1-B Visas)
- Travel and Tourist Business including tourist destinations
- Construction
- Janitorial Businesses
The above industries as well
as others, represented by their trade associations actively lobby lawmakers to maintain or increase the present massive immigration to the U.S. According to many economists immigration is good for the economy. But Americans view the national economy from different perspectives. The U.S. economy, as seen through the eyes of an American factory worker is interpreted quite
differently from that of a business owner or corporate shareholder. For American workers in one of the many industries that have driven down hourly wages through the use of low income immigrant labor, immigration is quite harmful to one’s livelihood. American workers in such industries as meatpacking, agriculture, construction, information technology, to name a few sectors have seen real wages decline over the last fifteen years primarily due to the supply of cheaper labor provided by mass
immigration. Business owners benefit from this competition as their labor costs are decreased and their profits increase. Prof. Borjas estimates that immigration increases profits to business by $160 billion annually. The cheap labor provided by immigrants is a huge bonanza to business owners and corporate shareholders. Lower wage costs mean higher profits. Mass
immigration does not benefit all Americans. But alot of Americans with money, power and influence are reaping big money thanks to the economic effects of cheap immigrant labor. | 
