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Originally Posted by Donger
Sorry, but that's rather simplistic.
Even in industries with high concentrations of illegal workers -- such as construction, restaurants and some parts of agriculture -- the impact isn't as great as many people think. If there weren't illegal immigrants working in construction in places like Chicago and Miami, then demand for legal workers would go up, which would mean wages would rise. But very quickly, legal workers from other parts of the country would move to those cities, and wages would go back down. The net impact on wages would be relatively modest.
That's probably the best summation I've seen.
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I'm sorry but I don't agree. I work in the construction industry, and I have very real idea of the impact illegal labor has on the housing market. The cost of paying an illegal $500 per week is much lower than the cost of paying a legal $500 per week. There isn't going to be a host of freshly legalized mexicans that are willing to not only take a lower wage, but also start paying taxes on that wage.
The thing that people don't realize is a lot of these people are perfectly content working illegally, and not having to pay taxes on their wages. There are a lot of illegals that are in no hurry to be legalized.