For many African-Americans, today's debate over immigration evokes a bitter sense of deja vu.
Frank Morris: As immigration rates rise, blacks' prosperity drops
09:42 AM CDT on Wednesday, April 18, 2007
In 1965, a new immigration law restarted mass immigration just as African-Americans, emerging from long years of segregation, were poised to enter the economic mainstream.
In the decades since, millions of immigrants – legal and illegal – have settled here, causing the immigrant population to balloon from fewer than 10 million in 1970 to about 36 million today.
Black Americans have suffered economically in periods of high immigration. On the other hand, when immigration ebbed and labor supply was tight – during World War I, for example – African-American prosperity soared.
The current wave of immigration has been especially destructive, coming at a time of severe economic restructuring caused by globalization and outsourcing. Unlike previous immigration cycles, this massive influx continues with no natural end in site. What's more, since immigrants are likely to have little education, immigration is significantly adding to the economic challenges of the underclass by importing competitors for jobs.
The effects are predictable: Wages drop, working conditions deteriorate, and the native-born are crowded out of the job market. Education, medical care and other services are diverted to address new, unplanned-for needs. Whole industries have organized themselves in expectation of an unending supply of foreign labor.
In the decades since, millions of immigrants – legal and illegal – have settled here, causing the immigrant population to balloon from fewer than 10 million in 1970 to about 36 million today.
Black Americans have suffered economically in periods of high immigration. On the other hand, when immigration ebbed and labor supply was tight – during World War I, for example – African-American prosperity soared.
The current wave of immigration has been especially destructive, coming at a time of severe economic restructuring caused by globalization and outsourcing. Unlike previous immigration cycles, this massive influx continues with no natural end in site. What's more, since immigrants are likely to have little education, immigration is significantly adding to the economic challenges of the underclass by importing competitors for jobs.
The effects are predictable: Wages drop, working conditions deteriorate, and the native-born are crowded out of the job market. Education, medical care and other services are diverted to address new, unplanned-for needs. Whole industries have organized themselves in expectation of an unending supply of foreign labor.
posted by jillosophy at 4/18/2007 11:39:00 AM
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