The Effect of Illegal Immigration on The Labor Market
I have been quite concerned with the illegal immigrant job market and how it will affect our economy.
First and foremost, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (they call the illegals “undocumented workers”) one half of the new jobs among foreign born workers have gone to illegal immigrants in 2023. Specifically, according to The Epoch Times, April 15, 2024, edition, there were 31million immigrant workers as of March 2024. (20% of the labor force) but approximately 9 million of these workers were illegally present.
What does this mean for the workers in Georgia. Most economists agree that the illegal immigrant puts downward pressure on wages.
I have seen the phenomenon in my workers’ compensation practice. I represent injured Georgia workers, both legal and illegal.
You might say, “Why would I represent folks that are illegally working in Georgia.” The answer is simple: if employer did not have to pay an illegal immigrant (whom they hired to perform labor) once they sustained an injury, then they would hire more illegals, work them without concerns of safety, and once hurt, fire them and push them to the trash bin of the disabled. Then the injured worker would have to depend on the state or federal government for disability money, food and shelter. What the unscrupulous employer has done is to privatize their profit with cheap labor and risky work) and socialize the consequences of the injuries.
Ironically, the side effect of this is to create full employment for lawyers like me who represent the injured, suing the insurance companies who provide workers’ compensation for the employers.
The big picture here is that the employers are more than willing to hire the illegals for cheap wages to do the hard jobs without training and safety. Once injured, the employer will never see the workers again. The illegal worker may pursue their injury claim but their ability to work will be greatly diminished. So the illegal worker takes a job away from the US citizen worker.
A few years ago, it was illegal for a US based company to hire illegal workers. There were fines and penalties to pay. Not anymore. Those laws and regulations are ignored. Why? It is the pressure on businesses to produce a profit by employing cheap labor. The State and Federal regulators turn a blind eye. Doing so makes the labor market statistics look good for the Biden Administration and their talking points about the economy.
In summary, the US worker loses, the illegal immigrant will lose, but the lawyers always come out ahead. This is not the way the system should work.