Wednesday 28 September 2011

Immigration: what are these people thinking?

Am I the only one unnerved by the outbreak of anti-immigration feeling on the left at the moment? Such views the right might be expected, but from the left? Here in the UK, Labour politicians, yes, that's Labour politicians, are falling over themselves to blame the immigrants for everything (reminding me of the way Conservatives used to blame feckless single mothers). The London Times writer David Aaronovitch links approvingly to a very good piece by Jonathan Portes on why the facts don't support Labour (Labour are apologising for immigration record. They are wrong to do so. > Excellent article).  But all this is as nothing in comparison to the extraordinary plan from Democrat Presidential Candidate Micheal Dukakis in the New York Times (which I saw tweeted yesterday HT, Alex Tabarrok).  The cunning wheeze is this:
  1. Immigrants only do the worst jobs
  2. So if you can get rid of the worst jobs then immigrants won't come
  3. Plan: raise the minimum wage, which makes the worst jobs disappear, so achieving 2. 

And this is a plan from the liberal left?  In a country built on immigration?