Most opinion polls have shown that immigration has become a major election issue, both for economists and Nobel laureates Paolo Krugmannon Friday, the concerns in this regard weighed on the merits.
What happened: “Immigration looms larger and larger in the campaign, in part because it is becoming increasingly difficult for Republicans to stand up to Biden on the economy,” Krugman said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “But there is ample evidence that immigration was a key part of Biden’s economic success.”
To support his thesis, Krugman shared some data, suggesting that immigrants are the reason behind the reduction in inflation.
“Inflation has come down so easily, in part because of strong growth in the workforce,” he said, adding that all of this growth is attributable to foreign-born workers.
Immigrants help rather than hinder: Krugman said immigrants have not stolen Americans’ jobs as has been widely perceived. You noted that the U.S. job market is tight and that the country has full employment. The Conference Board’s survey showed that consumers’ assessment of the job market was very positive in January, she explained.
The number of respondents saying jobs were plentiful was 45.5% in January, up from 40.4% in December, while those saying jobs are hard to find fell from 13. 1% to 9.8%.
“So employment is constrained by supply, not demand,” Krugman said.
“Foreign-born workers broaden the supply. And there is a lot of evidence that they are complementary to native workers, so that we can run the economy more intensively without inflation and therefore *increase* native employment.”
Sharing a chart from the St. Louis Federal Reserve, Krugman noted that the relative wages of foreign-born workers have fallen slightly relative to native-born workers since the pandemic.
“All of this is short term; add the enormous long-term benefits of immigration in helping us pay for Social Security, Medicare and so on,” Krugman said, adding “Immigrants are really good for the U.S. economy – and really negative nativists.”
Because it is important: Illegal border crossings have sparked a social media storm, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently criticized the Biden administration’s focus on legalizing large numbers of immigrants. President Joe Biden is working with the goal of getting “as many illegals as possible into the country” and legalizing them to “create a permanent majority – a one-party state,” he said.
A poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies in partnership with The Telegraph between December 28 and 30 showed that immigration was mentioned as the second most important election issue for Arizona voters.
Results from a Monmouth University poll released in mid-December also showed that one reason Biden’s approval ratings hit rock bottom was his immigration policy. Of those surveyed, 69% opposed him and only 26% supported him on this front.
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