Employers increase their profits and put downward pressure on wages and labor standards by exploiting migrant workers

[This article from the Economic Policy Institute makes a crucial point that’s often missing from discussions of immigration: U.S. workers aren’t harmed by the presence of undocumented workers and guest workers; the problem is the super-exploitation of foreign-born workers, and the solution is ending the policies that enable this super-exploitation.—TPOI editor]

By Daniel Costa, Economic Policy Institute

August 27, 2019

In recent decades, far too much of our immigration policy apparatus has ignored the interests of workers—immigrants and U.S.-born workers alike. This apparatus has instead been weaponized to suppress wages for employers’ gain. Immigration is an area of policy where a few simple solutions could result in major improvements to labor standards for all workers—but these solutions are blocked by low-road employers who benefit from today’s anti-worker system.

To be clear, the challenge posed to U.S. workers is not the simple presence of migrant workers in the labor market; instead, it is the legal framework that makes these workers exploitable.[…]

Read the full article:

https://www.epi.org/publication/labor-day-2019-immigration-policy/