[Marxism] immigration issues

[Andrew Pollack <acpollack2@xxxxxxxxx>]

George Borjas has been the economist most cited (including by Steven Steinberg) 
on why immigration is bad for low-wage workers, including Blacks. In a column 
yesterday in the Wall Street Journal he regurgitated some of his most common 
arguments, and ended thus:
"National wage trends confirm the common-sense notion that immigration has 
labor market consequences: A larger pool of competing workers lowers relative 
wages. This does not imply that immigration is a net loss for the economy. 
After all, the wage losses suffered by workers show up as higher profits to 
employers and, eventually, as lower prices to consumers. Immigration policy is 
just another redistribution program. In the short run, it transfers wealth from 
one group (workers) to another (employers). Whether or not such transfers are 
desirable is one of the central questions in the immigration debate."

  The last three sentences are worth quoting widely. Our formulation of the 
very last sentence of course would be different: The bosses not only benefit 
from splitting the working class into separate, competing groups, they foster 
these divisions, pitting immigrants against Blacks, Blacks against whites, 
unskilled against skilled, etc. They are not just passive recipients of the 
benefits from our class's division, but actively craft that division.

  The path to uniting the class lies not in ignoring the real material 
differences created by the bosses but in fighting against them, in raising the 
material conditions and rights of the lowest while fighting also for guaranteed 
jobs, income, and services for all.

                
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