Just came across this useful little chart from The New York Times. Now, as we all know, correlation is not causation. But nor is it nothing. This chart tracks the average median hourly wage for high school drop outs -- the very subgroup that immigrations most pressures -- in a variety of states. If, as some claim, high levels of immigration exert relentless downward pressure on unskilled native wages, you'd expect states with large immigrant populations to exhibit very low wages for unskilled workers. That doesn't appear to be the case. Obviously, that doesn't mean that immigrants have no effect on unskilled workers, but whatever impact they do have is pretty clearly not that large. Indeed, the column that the graph comes from is a pretty good overview on the economic literature surrounding immigrants and wage pressures. I'd highlight the fact that even George Borjas, the economist most often used by restrictionists, estimates that under realistic assumptions, the drag immigrants exert on native, unskilled wages is about 4 percent. Given the universe of things screwing over the working man, immigration just ain't that large a player. And, in contrast to forces like skyrocketing CEO pay, deunionization, and the march of health costs, the "winners" here are poor immigrants rather than corporate executives and hedge fund managers. YOUR WORLD IN CHARTS: "DO IMMIGRANTS AFFECT WAGES?" EDITION.
Just came across this useful little chart from The New York Times. Now, as we all know, correlation is not causation. But nor is it nothing. This chart tracks the average median hourly wage for high school drop outs -- the very subgroup that immigrations most pressures -- in a variety of states. If, as some claim, high levels of immigration exert relentless downward pressure on unskilled native wages, you'd expect states with large immigrant populations to exhibit very low wages for unskilled workers. That doesn't appear to be the case. Obviously, that doesn't mean that immigrants have no effect on unskilled workers, but whatever impact they do have is pretty clearly not that large. Indeed, the column that the graph comes from is a pretty good overview on the economic literature surrounding immigrants and wage pressures. I'd highlight the fact that even George Borjas, the economist most often used by restrictionists, estimates that under realistic assumptions, the drag immigrants exert on native, unskilled wages is about 4 percent. Given the universe of things screwing over the working man, immigration just ain't that large a player. And, in contrast to forces like skyrocketing CEO pay, deunionization, and the march of health costs, the "winners" here are poor immigrants rather than corporate executives and hedge fund managers. 
