"Fences don't stop economic forces from working," writes Mark Thoma. "I think the only viable long-run solution to the immigration problem is to reduce the economic distance between Mexico and the U.S. Obviously, we don't want to do that by reducing our income, so we need to do what we can to help Mexico develop and raise its standard of living. In that regard, I would like to hear more from the presidential candidates on how the U.S. might help to promote business and job development in Mexico." So far as the immigration issue goes, I'm pretty sanguine about the economic impacts -- my read of the literature suggests that there's very little in the way of demonstrated harm caused by low-income migration, and the case for more high-skills immigration is rock solid. You can't tell me that letting one of Google's founders into our country has been a net loss for our economy. That said, America is riven with serious economic distress and competition from low wage immigrant labor almost certainly has an impact on Americans without high school degrees (the best working estimate is that it's reduced the wages of unskilled workers by about 3 percent, and had small but positive impacts higher up the skills ladder). But shutting down that competition, and its associated 3-5 percent drag, is an absurdly ineffective way of helping low income Americans. That it's so often the solution of politicians who are against universal health care, raises in the minimum wage, enhanced unemployment insurance, college affordability programs, progressive taxation, and so forth tells you all you really need to know about the cynicism of many (though certainly not all) who are presenting this as an issue of economic uplift. That said, it's perfectly fair to desire less immigration for cultural, or even economic, reasons. But staunching the flow requires economic development in Mexico, not restrictionism in America. Mark Thoma takes a look at the various presidential candidates web sites and concludes that only Obama is really even paying lip service to that solution, so kudos to him. All of the candidates, however, should folks read Jeff Faux...
