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AP has totally lost it. This isn't a fact check. This is an op-ed with cherry-picked arguments presented them as if they are "settled science." This is a polemic. apnews.com/7eb07814117f46…
"MYTH: VAST NUMBERS OF IMMIGRANTS ARE POURING ACROSS U.S. BORDERS" -- AP basically says as long as the number is about average there is no problem and that you can't say the numbers are a lot. Well, that is an opinion.
Many Americans think the number is vast and other Americans (including the AP) think the number is small enough not to worry about it. That's not an issue of Myth and Fact.
"MYTH: IMMIGRANTS ARE TAKING AWAY JOBS" -- It's wrong to blame immigrants but of course they are taking jobs that might have otherwise gone to prior immigrants or US-born workers. It doesn't have to be a zero-sum game for there to be an impact.
The AP waves away "firsthand stories of losing a construction bid or an office job to a foreign worker" as if those people are making immigrants the scapegoats for their own failings. That's not a fact check.
There are numerous case studies of industries using an increase in foreign workers to displace American workers, including in the LA janitorial and body shop industries in the 1980s and the technology industry starting in the 1990s. jstor.org/stable/10.1525… The AP ignores them.
Instead, the AP says "employment data suggest that the influx of immigrants helps increase overall hiring for the U.S. economy rather than erode job growth." But the "myth" wasn't about growing the economy or the total number of jobs. Of course immigration does those things.
But the benefits are distributed unevenly. From 2000 through the first quarter of 2014, all of the net employment gains went to immigrant workers.
Also notice how glibly AP dismisses the harm to Americans who don't have a HS degree "only about 6.2 percent." The implication is that since they are such a small part of the population, any concern about what immigration might do to them doesn't matter. Unbelievable.
"many people seeking to reduce immigration rely on research from George Borjas" as if he is a lone voice in the wilderness. Even the pro-expansionist economist the AP quotes says immigration has "a substantial negative effect (−6.7%) on wages of previous immigrants"
The AP references the National Academy of Science, but not this finding: "almost one-half of the decline in real wages for native-born high school dropouts from 1980 to 1994 could be attributed to the adverse impact of unskilled foreign workers." prospect.org/article/two-si…
Or the fiscal cost at the state level: CA -$18.96 billion; TX -$7.8 billion, NY -$5.79 billion, IL -$4.16 billion, NJ -$3.24 billion, WA -$2.51 billion, MA -$1.86 billion, CO-$1.18 billion, AZ -$1.17billion, FL -$1.14billion, GA -$1.02billion, NV -$620m. cis.org/Press-Release/…
Economists who favor immigration expansion celebrate that lower wages is a byproduct: "Their presence in the labor market reduces the prices of child care, food preparation, house cleaning & construction." People know this and recognize when others aren't telling the truth.
"immigration reduces the wages of domestic workers who compete with immigrants. That’s just supply and demand...it’s inevitable that this means a fall in wages." krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/not…
"Our skilled wages are higher than anywhere in the world...If we open up a significant window for skilled workers, that would suppress the skilled-wage level and end the concentration of income." archive.boston.com/business/globe…
"The overall evidence suggests that the manufacturing and immigration trends have hollowed-out the overall demand for middle-skilled workers in all sectors,while ...producing downward pressure on the relative wages..." ftp.iza.org/dp9107.pdf
"all the [net] new jobs in fast food went to older workers and immigrants, not one of them went to a teenager." pbs.org/newshour/econo…
Even the education myth is blatantly selective/subjective. Immigration has greatly increased since 1970 and there are many more immigrants with advanced degrees AND many more immigrants without HS degrees. numbersusa.com/blog/data-show…
I don't see anything in this "fact check" that says there was a factual error. apnews.com/7eb07814117f46…
Here's what Fact Checking has come to mean: "Here's what this person (with whom I disagree) said. And here is what people who have a different opinion say. And I'm going to tell you which opinion I favor."
