Last week I considered how we might improve the quality of immigration, among other topics.
What about the Bush immigration plan? The ever-inventive Randall Parker has produced an excellent analysis at www.Parapundit.com. Here is his summary:
“*The factors that separate out current illegals from those who are unwilling or unable to come to the US to work illegally now will continue to cause current illegals to behave differently than those who would come under legal temporary work permits.
* Work permits will effectively expand the potential pool of foreign labor by orders of magnitude.
* Many and probably most work permit jobs would go to people who are not now illegals and who would never become illegals in the absence of Bush’s temporary work permit program. This will leave many existing illegals still looking for illegal work.
* Much work currently done by illegals will continue to be done by illegals as long as illegals can get into and stay in the United States. Even if Bush’s proposal is enacted some employers will still have economic motives to use illegals.
* Many who come as legals will turn into illegals when their work permit expires.
* Many jobs not now taken by foreigners will be taken by foreigners once foreign temporary workers can be hired legally.”
In other words, we take in more people (I have no problem with that, Parker may be more skeptical), but our current problems with illegal immigration do not improve. Here is part of the intuition. The people who get the new worker permits are not in general those who will cross the border illegally. The new legal standards select workers on very different criteria than mere physical bravery or border proximity. So you hand out the permits but you do not drain off much of the demand to immigrate illegally.
I am much more pro-immigration than is Parker, but I think he hits the nail on the head concerning the Bush plan. It will not in general bring immigration under the ambit of the rule of law. Read his whole analysis at the link by his name.
Comments are closed.