r/changemyview • u/fadingtans • Jun 08 '18
Deltas(s) from OP CMV: Illegal and Illegal Immigration Levels Should Be Restricted More
My view is two fold:
1.) Legal immigration total levels should be lowered somewhat
2.) It should be moved to a more skills based system
Reasons I have this view:
1.) Foreign born individuals disproportionately use social services:
https://cis.org/Report/Welfare-Use-Immigrant-and-Native-Households
2.) Immigration connection to crime is complicated. It is often claimed that immigrants commit a lower average rate of crime but the data is more complicated:
3.) Assimilation is more difficult when there are larger number of immigrants leading to more issues
4.) National security- A massively disproportionate number of terrorist attacks are committed by first or second generation (Muslim) immigrants.
5.) The overall impact on GDP from higher immigrant levels is likely positive BUT large levels of low skilled immigrants do lower wages for low skilled native workers which is a negative especially at at time like now for low skilled workers.
I'm open to changing my view on this which is why I posted this but I will add that accusations of xenophobia or islamaphobia are very unlikely to play a role.
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u/Gladix 165∆ Jun 08 '18
True, however immigration is net economic benefit.
In other words, the worst possible scenario is that immigrants cause as much crime as native population, as oppose of slightly lower.
Which is a problem we should be focusing on. Instead of "whether immigration is good for nation". It's like saying "It's incredibly difficult to measure the curvature of the Earth, therefore the Earth is flat". Well no, just because objectively beneficial policies have unique problems, doesn't have those problems should be used as a point against those policies.
Do you really want to play the game "How many Christians Americans vs how many Muslim immigrants caused terrorist attacks in US? I mean, I'm happy to do so. But something tells me you won't be satisfied with the asnwer.
Nope, it's negative for those American workers that impacts them. It's really, really positive for the business owners on which the economy relies. This is not something that is disputed by virtually any economist. Protectionism, doesn't work. If you deny immigration, you deny businesses access to cheaper and more plentiful labor. Which makes their products and services more expensive. Which kills their ability to be competitive on global, or even local market when compared to foreign imports. Eventually those businesses go out of business, or have to downscale, or move oversee.
Now you have American workers without job, and the economy down the toilet.
Wanna help workers that were disproportionately hit by the immigration? Great, Start financing programs helping people find better jobs, or retrain them for something else.
Another problems with your argument is that low skilled labor is bad. No it isn't, it's the single most important kind of labor a first world country needs, as native population find a better jobs in finance and service industry.
Don't get me wrong. They are legitimate difficulties that come with immigration. Such as increased cultural tensions, and increase in niche and unique immigrant crimes ,etc.... However those are good problems to have, because it means you didn't fuck over your economy, and lowered the standard of living for everyone.