Lets engage in a very simple intellectual exercise:
remove all immigration restrictions and all protections that we have.
Do you believe that
a) your family in a short term would be better off/not different/the worse off?
b) your family in a long term would be better off/not different worse off?
- shortage of housing
- ballooning social security budgets
- extreme long waiting times to get health care service
- a marked increase in crime, especially in certain categories (sex crimes, robbery, arson)
and long-lasting:
- taxes need to increase across the board with ~2% (in a country already burdened with close to the highest taxes in the world)
- costs for state pensions stand to double in the coming 20-30 years
- the real estate market will need to adjust to the new situation (oversupply in the high priced sector, a shortage in the low and medium price sectors)
- the labour market does not fit the education level of the new population. Available jobs require higher education levels than most immigrants have or can reach leading to high unemployment among immigrants. The extensive social security system and the related high taxation level takes away incentives - and in some cases actually presents negative incentives [1] - to go from state benefits to paid employment.
The situation in Sweden is made worse by the fact that the country officially does not mandate nor stimulate assimilation of immigrants into Swedish society while the native Swedish (and assimilated migrant) population do expect immigrants to assimilate to a large extent, leading to increased segregation [2].
[1] It is fully possible in Sweden to end up with a lower spendable income when moving from state benefits to paid employment, mostly due to the fact that those on state benefits often get extra benefits for specific purposes (e.g. housing costs).
[1] Sweden does not have a single monolithic constitution, instead relying on four fundamental laws (the Instrument of Government (Swedish: Regeringsformen), the Freedom of the Press Act (Swedish: Tryckfrihetsförordningen), the Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression (Swedish: Yttrandefrihetsgrundlagen) and the Act of Succession (Swedish: Successionsordningen)). An 1974 amendment to the Instrument of Government act states that immigrants can choose to keep and strengthen their ethnic and cultural identity instead of assimilating into Swedish culture.
In the short term I think I would be much better off. I don't believe enough people who can compete with me economically would be all that interested in coming here, and/or them coming here doesn't improve their ability to compete with me. However, I'd be able to hire poor people for slave-like wages to perform all sorts of odd jobs for me around the house. I'd have a maid, etc.
In the long term I would be much worse off. The influx of poor people from other nations would completely overrun our public infrastructure: public schools, welfare programs, etc. The reason why illegal immigration "works" for the upper-middle and upper class is because it's illegal. My taxes would have to go through the roof to pay for all of this.
This is where I fundamentally disagree - every single developer in the US making US salaries will lose to eastern european/Indian/Chinese developer moving to the US because they will accept lower salary. Not much lower, but 20-30% lower because for them it would be amazing increase in their quality of life.
With regards to protectionism I don't know what more evidence you could need aside from the changes to the US economy brought on by NAFTA, which were all predicted. It's been fine for the economy as a whole, but we're not talking about things like the GDP. We're talking about the economic well-being of the people who used to manufacture things in the US. Watch carefully, because that is the sleight of hand that unrelentingly responds to any talk of protectionism. They talk about sound economic theory about how protectionism impacts things like GDP. Not the topic at hand.
As far as reigning in illegal immigration, there have been reports all across the country that farmers are losing money because they can't find enough people at any price who are willing to do farm work since the crackdown.
85,000 NEW H1Bs are issued each year, they last 3 years and can be extended for another 3. So right off the bat that's as many as half a million. There is no issue limit on H1Bs for universities and non-profits. In 2012 alone, for example, the total number of H1Bs (normal + university/non-profit) issued was 135,530. It's safe to say there are far more than 85,000 H1Bs in the US.
>because they can't find enough people at any price who are willing to do farm work since the crackdown.
I suspect their definition of "any price" is very different than mine.
