Jagdish Bhagwati has apparently never met an American who lost work to an illegal immigrant. That became clear in his Saturday appearance on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal". Yesterday's blog quoted his condescending views toward blacks who are unable to find work. Today I want to cite his exchanges with C-SPAN viewers who were concerned about the displacement of young people of all races by illegal immigrants.
A caller from Texas said this about young people: "We need them to get used to working.... But they don't have jobs because they're all getting taken over by illegal immigrants."
Bhagwati responded that the United States should not make immigration policy on concerns about problems young Americans are having in the low-wage job markets. He oozed elitist disdain for such jobs with this observation: "We don't want our kids to be doing these kinds of jobs. They really get internships and so on, of all kinds."
Well, Mr. Bhagwati, many of us think there is value in young people taking such jobs. There they can learn the value of hard work and the value of a dollar. More important, by working with people from other social strata, they can learn about their fellow Americans. They can acquire basic skills of citizenship.
Besides, Mr Bhagwati, many internships are out of reach for millions of Americans because they are unpaid. That means that these faux jobs, and the connections they provide, are available primarily to affluent families. And that means that the phenomenon is widening the divide between the haves and the have-nots that is a danger to social cohesion and other democratic values.
C-SPAN host Pedro Echevarria read a tweet from a viewer who made this straightforward observation: "A poorly paid job is that because of market forces, including a supply of illegal immigrants."
Bhagwati was unimpressed with this common sense. He responded that except in unusual circumstances, "The jobs will not exist at the prices which we Americans would want.... They would disappear." Somehow, I think that jobs that need to be done will get done, even if it means employing an American citizen or lawful resident.