Essay Question:
The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper:
“The inflow of immigrant workers into our community has put a downward pressure on wages. In fact, the average compensation of unskilled labor in our city has declined by nearly 10% over the past 5 years. Therefore, to protect our local economy, it is essential to impose a moratorium on further immigration.”
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. Point out flaws in the argument's logic and analyze the argument's underlying assumptions. In addition, evaluate how supporting evidence is used and what evidence might counter the argument's conclusion. You may also discuss what additional evidence could be used to strengthen the argument or what changes would make the argument more logically sound.
Response:The argument states that the inflow of immigrant workers into the community has led to a downward pressure on the wages and provides the data regarding the change in average compensation of unskilled workers in the city over the past 5 years to support this claim. It also claims that it is essential to impose a further moratorium on further immigration to protect the local economy. However, I feel that this argument falls flat on several counts and needs to be further investigated.
Firstly, there has been on data provided to suggest that it is the immigrant population that is responsible for the trend. It is very much possible that the immigrants are much more skilled than the local population and in fact engage in white collar jobs. Thus, effectively nullifying the cause and effect relationship which might have led to a fall in wages for unskilled labor.
Secondly, we need data to establish that the fall has in wages has not been caused by other reasons. It might very well be true that inefficient government policies have led to an economic slowdown as has been the case in most of the recessionary scenarios such as Great Depression of 1930 or Financial Crisis in 2008. We also need to check whether this trend had started well before there was an increase in the inflow of immigrant workers, for reasons such as automation replacing the need to employ unskilled labor and to pay the same amount of wages as earlier.
Thirdly, even if we were to believe that immigrant workers are indeed putting a downward pressure on wages, we can't automatically assume that it is a threat to the local economy. It has the potential to further reduce the cost of manufacturing for the businesses in the economy, thus making them much more competitive on the global stage. It might help in increasing the overall demand for manufacturing in the country and consequently the number of available jobs. Once the economy grows, there would be higher tax revenues which can be utilized for wealth redistribution and make up for the lost wages.
In the end, I would conclude that we need to look at the situation much more holistically in light of the necessary data which the author might not have considered in his argument before we could substantially put the blame on immigrants.