Washington Post - President Trump endorsed a steep cut in legal immigration on Wednesday. Economists say that's a “grave mistake.”
A Washington Post survey of 18 economists in July found that 89 percent believe it's a terrible idea for Trump to curb immigration to the United States. Experts overwhelmingly predict it would slow growth — the exact opposite of what Trump wants to do with “MAGAnomics.”
“Restricting immigration will only condemn us to chronically low rates of economic growth,” said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group. “It also increases the risk of a recession.”
Many economists and business leaders endorse the skills-based approach. Canada and Australia, among other countries, use this method. But there's heavy criticism for the [Trump backed] RAISE Act's plan to slash the number of green cards from 1 million a year to 500,000 over the next decade. In the first year alone, the bill cuts the number of green cards by 41 percent.
Jeremy Robbins, executive director of New American Economy, a coalition founded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg ... points out that Canada and Australia — the supposed models for the Trump administration's reforms — both let in more than double the number of immigrants per capita than the United States does. There are also concerns that such a dramatic cut to legal immigration would cause illegal immigration to rise.
2 comments:
I got an idea--let's offer a work visa to every foreign citizen economist in the world, so they can come her to provide competition to American economists, drive down their wages and even cause them to be laid off. It's good for the economy, right?
If immigration put professional class jobs at risk, the borders would have been completely closed to immigration decades ago.
Bill,
I guess you haven't been noticing how many immigrants work in high tech, or how many immigrants with MDs work in healthcare as Doctors. Immigrants are taking plenty of professional class jobs, and have for decades, yet the border hasn't closed. If the US didn't have all these professional class immigrants, you'd have a much harder time getting healthcare, because there would be a huge doctor shortage.
If you want to be sure as many of these professional class jobs go to people born in the US as possible, then support improving public schools, and making university education free. The systematic dumbing down of US public schools have led to a shortage of students who have the skills to do well in college to get these professional class jobs. The cost of getting a college education and advanced degrees, has increased to the point that many young US citizens can't afford to get these degrees. The loans for getting an advanced degree can add up to a point that even a well paid job like being a Doctor won't leave a person much to survive on after making loan payments.
With so many roadblocks on the way to a professional class job, it's no surprise that the US needs immigrants to fill these professional class jobs. Some of the countries these immigrants come from, the government will give money to their young citizens to live and earn a college degree abroad. Immigrants from those countries can afford to get advanced degrees without the fear of paying off student loans for the rest of their lives. US students are not so lucky. They must ask themselves if the degree they are considering will pay a high enough salary to pay off their student loans and keep a roof over their heads.
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