Many of this week’s readings share a common feature: casting doubts on the underpinning assumption of Open Economic Politics (OEP) that individuals’ policy preferences can be derived from their economic self-interests. Hainmueller and Hiscox (2007) find that labor-market competition cannot explain the source of anti-immigrant sentiment. Instead, people with higher levels of education and occupational skills are more tolerant to immigrants regardless of immigrants’ skill levels. Mansfield and Mutz (2009) find that individuals' trade policy preferences are shaped by their perceptions rather than their self-interests. They argue education is less representative of skills than of individuals' perceptions, and perceptions of how trade affects …show more content…
But it will be interesting to see whether such a concern will have an impact on individuals’ attitude toward immigrants. Another question I have for this paper is that how will the result apply to the United States? Most European countries could be seen as small, open economies that fit the description of the Heckscher-Olin model. As a result, trade can offset the impact of immigration as economies adjust to changes in factor supplies by importing less of the product that can now be produced locally at a lower price. As a result, workers’ wages will not change much. However, the U.S. market can affect world price, and immigration may have a more salient effect on workers’ wages in the U.S. It will be interesting to see how the analysis of this paper applies to the U.S.
My question for Mansfield and Mutz’s (2009) paper is that how can you prove individuals form socio-tropic perceptions first before having their trade policy preferences? The authors obviously realize this problem but they spend only two short paragraphs talking about how unlikely people might have a priori opinion on trade. Their main argument is that media coverage may alter socio-tropic perceptions, but it generally has no effect on opinions. If I were the authors, I will spill more inks on this. Perhaps borrowing theories and empirical results from physiology and sociology can better justify the authors’ argument. Otherwise, it seems to me that support for trade barriers and holding racist
From an economic aspect, immigration is somewhat beneficial since it increases the US work force and it’s economy. According to Camarota Steven on his testimony’’ Immigration and the US economy’’, immigration overall increases the economy of the US due to the fact that more workers and more people mean bigger GDP. He also pointed out that the impact of immigration of the seize of the economy is not a measure of the benefits of natives. That means that regardless of the benefits of natives, Immigration is a tool to increase the economy of the US. On the other hand, it can be detrimental to the US economy. In fact most of the immigrants work “under the table” which make the fiscal
Mr. Davidson argues that when it comes to economics, there is really not much of a debate to be had. Adam writes, “That is not controversial,” Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told me. Shierholz also said that “there is a consensus that, on average, the incomes of families in this country are increased by a small, but clearly positive amount, because of immigration.” (Davidson,
Women’s rights are the basic rights women have that should not be different under any type of circumstances. The discrimination against gender is still happening from varies aspects, but women have been trying to gain their equality ever since the early nineteenth century. In the reading “Woman and the New Race,” Margaret Sanger indicates that the lack of reproductive freedom for women has caused the “perpetuated the tyrannies of the Earth.” In my own opinion, her statement reveals as how the right of reproduction is not in the hand of women and this can cause the overpopulation in the human race. During this time period, almost all the decisions were made by the husband and the wife didn’t have control over any situation, including how many children she could have.
Illustrating how immigrants help the economy through their suffering, brings up empathy once more. The authors’ describe how they fled to a new country looking for a better life, finding unwanted jobs paying minimally, causing the consumers to positively buy products cheaply. Lakoff and Ferguson use pathos to They claim that to solve immigration, one must look at the issue broadly, realizing that the solution lies when everyone collaborates to decrease the number of people fleeing their country. Explaining the different viewpoints allows them to concede to the readers, showing how they are making their decisions based on knowledge. However, when comparing the two different views they still seem biased, using a negative tone when describing the way conservatives
There is question on whether or not the immigrants will help or hurt the economy. Some say immigrants will take jobs from Americans and damper U.S. tax rolls because they aren’t as skilled or educated. The fact is immigrants actually increase “overall wages and the pool of jobs” and add to the U.S. revenue (Dwoskin). In 2006 there was a suspected “21 million immigrants, about 15 percent of the labor force, [that] h[e]ld jobs in the U.S.” However, the U.S. only had about seven million unemployed. “So the majority of immigrants can't literally have "taken" jobs; they must be doing jobs that wouldn't have existed had the immigrants not been here,” (Lowenstein). Roger Lowenstein also presents a valid and insightful point in stating that immigrants who take these jobs that “wouldn’t have existed”, relative prices could be lowered in a similar way that global trade does.
One common misconception among native-born Americans is that with a virtually unlimited supply of “outsiders” willing to do a job for less than the native who is currently doing that same job, the value of the low-skilled work force is decreased as a whole. This, in turn, leads to the belief that immigrants are depressing the wages of that working class. However, over the last twenty years, numerous studies have been conducted in order to find out if this is true or not and in most cases the findings indicate that, “Immigration seems to have no effects on the wages or employment of white natives and very slight, if any, negative effects on the wages and employment of native blacks.” (Waldinger, David, Lichter 19)
Some of pioneers in this field are Hollifield, Freeman, and Kesstler. In their study of immigration in political economic perspective, Kessler and Freeman argue that immigration is more likely to increase the benefits for receiving economy and the local people rather than harming them (year). Even though the cheap labor of the immigrants may make wages decrease for some jobs that the they participate in, it increases the productivity of labor as a whole and it increases the benefits of the owners of business that choose to hire immigrants. Also usually the immigrants work in low-levels jobs that the locals don't want to do, so they help fulfil the shortage of low-skilled labor without increasing the competition for other jobs that the locals prefer. However, if the immigrants pay less tax (because of governmental support or because of illegal immigration) than the citizens, the tax payers would feel resentful and want to oppose immigration, and therefore would make it problematic for the government. Ideally, according to Kessler and Freeman (year), the interest of state when making policies for immigration is maximizing the economic revenue that the immigrants can bring in while minimizing their consumptions of public benefits. Most of the states are driven by economic incentives when they adjust
When immigration policy is discussed, typically, it is discussed within the confines of egalitarian notions and sentiments, and inside the boundaries and parameters set by generally Marxist-influenced social democracy. Characteristically, it is not discussed pertaining to the concept of a social order built on the rights of property owners, sharers, and contributors to and of the common stock- which at their discretion- may exclude bad apples, lazy contributors, rotten characters, trespassers, and terrorists. Once egalitarian sentiments and notions are rejected full-scale- (only giving credence to those that have empirical weight or logical consistency) more proper, more substantive interdisciplinary analyses may reveal that the current investigative techniques employed by current mainstream political theorists are- in the context of reality, incorrect, superficial and quite shallow.
The US labor force would not survive if it was not for illegal immigrants. If there were no illegal immigrants our labor force would decrease by four percent (Isidore 5). “We could not have grown as much as we did in the 1990s if we did not have immigrants… our growth would have been slower (Isidore 5).” Having illegal immigrants in our labor force increases the amount of resources we have, which increases the amount of production in the country. “Some economists discuss that not only do U.S. consumers benefit from lower prices as an outcome of the low wages most immigrants are paid, but that the convenience of lower-wage labor helps create more work for higher-skilled, higher-paid workers who are generally born in the US (Isidore 14).” Illegal immigrants are opening up higher wage jobs, because they take over the lower wage jobs. Many immigrants take jobs in the field of construction, agriculture
Immigration is important for the growth of the economy because it’s a major contributions towards the economy. The United States has often been referred to as a global melting pot due to its assimilation of diverse cultures, nationalities, and ethnicities. Today, this metaphor may be an understatement. Edstam and Carlson an immigration activists reports that, without the extra work and consumption provided by immigrants, the economy of the United States would collapse. They include in the article saying that, despite the common notion that immigrants steal jobs from Americans, the 2005 Economic Report shows that The Federal Reserve in fact recently raised its benchmark interest rate because it observed a strengthening U.S. economy with reduced unemployment, rising wages and some labor shortages Immigrants continue to strengthen local economies through their higher productivity and increased consumption (Edstam and Carlson). An article by Savajlenka added, Studies show that competition with American workers among immigrants is very minimal and limited to the unskilled labor. Therefore, Savajlenka immigration analyst states that, “Numerous studies have documented that immigrants are needed to replace the large number of retiring Baby Boomers and that the future growth of the U.S. workforce will come from immigrants and their children” (Savajlenka). This is an additional like a shot in occupations that presently use several older employees, like janitorial and truck driving
The global mobility of human resources between countries is a key driving force of the currently ongoing economic and regional development all over the world. It is indisputable that the immigration of international labour force would exert many positive and important impacts on the economic, cultural and social structure of both migrant-receiving and migrant-sending countries. Actually, the trend of temporary and permanent immigrants increasing in some western countries began to gain momentum in recent years. Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD 2004) reports indicated that there were more than 1 million new immigrants in the United States in 2001 and 2002, increased by 25% from 2000; in some European countries
True love is an emotion that every human being should have the privilege of experiencing once in their life. There is no one correct definition for this feeling, it is definitely different for everyone, but in the end love should make your life better not more difficult. These days the concept of true love has become cliché and people are letting outside factors dictate their emotions. This problem, while it is very prominent today, is not a new thing. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the idea of mistaken true love fills the pages. All the characters have different ideas of what love really is and its worth. Fitzgerald uses his characters Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby to show three different yet
The world is becoming an increasingly interconnected place and this trend is continuing. As a result, countries are facing new problems that are requiring policy changes in many highly contentious fields. Of major concern are the immigration and citizenship policies of many western nations that are receiving a majority of the immigrants. This is a highly salient issue because people are concerned about the effect immigrant populations will have on voting trends and the jobs that they could take from citizens. Rarely discussed, though of vital importance, is the immense impact that immigrants have on the economy, as they take low paying jobs that the average citizen would scoff at. If these immigrants are willing to take such low paying
The most avidly debated effects of immigration involve the United States’ economy and labor force. It is estimated that there are 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States today, and their impact on the economy can be perceived as positive as well as negative. The overall effect is unclear, and this essay will present both sides of the debate.
I will try my best to suppress my feelings. I will try to make my English more legible and use real words, even if they look disgusting.some words are too complex for me to know how to write properly so please forgive me.