One of the most prominent arguments made by those who oppose immigration in the United States is that immigrants take jobs away from American citizens when they come here for work. I’m not sure that’s true. Or, if it is true, I don’t think it’s the real problem in any case. Brink Lindsey’s article about the implicitness of cultural deficiencies in economic and social stratification got me thinking. The general perspective of those who fear losing their jobs to foreign immigrants may be the real source of their troubles.

Take the case of Mexican immigrants who primarily take low-wage manual labor jobs in the US. The value of the American dollar to Americans is low. Americans need more money than they have to buy the things they’re used to being able to pay for. The economy in Mexico, however, is still weaker than ours. The quality of life there is lower.

When immigrants come to the United States, they become a part of our economy and, more specifically, our markets. They value the dollar higher than American citizens do, because they are willing to live in lower circumstances and thus do more with fewer dollars. Also, the population has risen as a result of them being here. That’s fewer dollars to go around, which makes them more valuable, and more people who value them higher than before. That also makes the dollar more valuable.

Now, everyone’s money (without making anymore than before) is worth more than it was. The influx of poorer people into this country, then, improves everybody’s lives– even their own. Of course, there are some Americans who are working those same manual labor jobs that the immigrants want. And the Mexican immigrants are willing to do those jobs for less, because they value each dollar more. So, some Americans end up out of work or in competition with immigrants for employment.

It’s that last part that’s a problem. But, immigration doesn’t seem to be the real source of trouble. Why are these Americans so interested in jobs that someone from a poorer country would want in the first place? We already know they can’t afford to live the way they’re expected to on that pay; yet, for some reason, it doesn’t occur to them to look for better jobs. Thanks to Brink Lindsey’s article, we already know that there is plenty of incentive in the market for Americans to further their education and get more advanced jobs if they really want them.

Instead, they demand that the employers be the ones to pay them more than their jobs are really worth. If the employers agree, the price of the products and services they produce go up, making the value of the dollar continue to decline. This would seem to ensure that conditions will never improve.

It looks like immigration could be very healthy for the United States. What needs to change, then, is not wages or immigration policies, but the self-defeating attitude of the American lower class that struggle to keep jobs only people living in worse conditions than them would want, instead of striving to obtain the better jobs that are available to them .