The immigration debate and the increase in social and economic disparities.

In discussing the issue of immigration policies, Halstead and Lind mention a very uncomfortable truth that is avoided all too often:

The reason the immigration debate is so contentious is that any policy choice inevitably involves significant trade-offs. There is simply no such thing as a win-win immigration policy; whatever choice is made, there will always be winners and losers, both domestically and internationally. For instance, high levels of low-skilled immigrants (most of America's current immigrants fall in this category) tend to benefit domestic employers and capital owners, as well as the poor from abroad who come to our shores. However, the same policy also tends to depress wages for America's current working poor, and to increase the disparity between our educational and economic haves and have-nots. In studying this matter, the National Academy of Sciences concluded that increased immigration tends to disproportionately depress the wages and economic circumstances of low-skilled and low-income workers, while benefiting the wealthiest Americans.

(Halstead & Lind: pp. 176-177).

They are right. Our media still discusses these issues from the anticuated perspective of right versus left. Thus, defending a stricter immigration policy is usually equated with conservatism, while a more loose policy is normally seens as more liberal or progressive. However, this barely scratches the surface of the problem, which is far more complex. What if, as suggested above, the constant influx of immigrants into our countries acts as an influence to lower the wages of those whose incomes are already at the bottom of the ladder to start with? What if it's precisely the business owners who benefit the most from this trend by lowering costs here, without a need to even take the jobs offshore? How does this affect the welfare system that we had built in the last few decades? More important still, what is the impact on our middle class, which had expanded during the heady years of the postwar, leading to a more stable society? All these are questions that need answers, and the answers cannot follow the traditional right versus left approach. After all, how progressive is it to support lower wages for our working class while the wealthy business owners benefit from it? It's no surprise that populism and the far-right are growing so much precisely among the displaced working class of the developed world, those who have seen their wages decrease and their hopes of becoming middle class someday wither away. These are the true issues we have to cope with, and we have to do so without prejudices and old assumptions. It's no secret that the social and economic disparities have grown in the US in the last two or three decades. What's not so well known is the fact that the main cause may have not been the "neoliberal policies" everybody likes to blame, but rather a high level of immigration and the pressure of the global markets. Exactly, there goes another cherished dogma of the left!