Do you think immigration (both legal and illegal) impact wages in Western countries?

[Anonymous]

My theory is that illegal and legal immigration from poorer nations means wages won't be as high as they otherwise would be because generally these immigrants will work for lower wages. This in turn means everyone else to some degree with have to work for lower wages. What do you think?

[jshm2]

No. Governments have set minimum wages, so legal or illegal is immaterial as they get paid the same.

Obviously they don't, but employers are relying on illegals being ignorant of the law, and not reporting them.

So your theory is ignorant and blatantly wrong, and you should hang your head in shame.

[Asker]

Damn, your tone sounds like Donald Trump...

[exitseven]

If businesses can get immigrants to work for less money it depresses wages all across the board.

[alice55]

It impact it of course as illegal immigrant work for lower wage and get treated as slaves by company that don't even give them an official work

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

Based on what evidence? This doesn’t even sound like economics

[Asker]

Well, it's a theory. Lots of economics is based on theory.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

It just sounds like a reason to hate brown people to me

[Asker]

LOL. It is not. The question asked about illegal and legal immigration. Most legal immigrants are not brown.

And just because you oppose illegal immigration does not mean you hate brown people. That is illogical.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

If you genuinely don’t think the issues with illegal immigration don’t also happen to overlap with a lot of racist ideas, that’s pretty ignorant

[Asker]

Sure, there is overlap, but that does not mean they are the same. Just because all racists oppose illegal immigration does not mean that you are racist if you oppose illegal immigration, or that you are promoting racism by opposing illegal immigration. Believe that is pretty ignorant. A lot of left-wing ideas overlap with communism. That does not mean the left-wing ideas are bad.

[Anonymous]

Yes, because it takes away jobs from people who are truly legal citizens of the United States.

[msc545]

There is a minimum for legal wages.

[Asker]

Right, but if more people are willing to work for the minimum such as immigrants, do you think this lowers other people's wages? Maybe because they will be forced to work for lower wages to compete?