I've always found the idea, that cheap foreign labour ruins the labour market for everyone, quite interesting. The thing is even if we were to take this conjecture at face value, it's still quite peculiar that limiting immigration usually gets proposed as a "solution". But nobody questions the system which allows for one set of workers to reduce wages and worker living standards by working for less because that's still better than having no work. A system which requires a reserve unemployed labour force to always exist inorder to put continous downward pressure on wages. Basically, the system, that is free market capitalism, commodification of labour and extraction of surplus value.
If the economy was under worker control cheap immigration wouldn't matter because it would have zero effect on local wages since it would be mandatory to pay enough for decent living standards. In which case immigration would simply become a matter of whether the economy needs more hands to work for everyone's mutual benefit , instead of Schlomo's quarterly profits.
If the economy was under worker control cheap immigration wouldn't matter because it would have zero effect on local wages since it would be mandatory to pay enough for decent living standards. In which case immigration would simply become a matter of whether the economy needs more hands to work for everyone's mutual benefit , instead of Schlomo's quarterly profits.
