The writer is an FT contributing editor and chief economist at American Compass
When entering debates about immigration, economists have often checked their credibility at the door. This happens especially when the question is immigration of large numbers of unskilled workers (attracting the globe’s top talent is a separate issue). Both common sense and market dynamics suggest that this causes job quality for existing workers to decline and public services to suffer. Yet arguments to the contrary have poured forth from economists, conveniently coinciding with the self-interest of employers dependent on large pools of cheap labour and progressives eager to square their opposition to restrictions on immigration with their support for worker power.
The current is now reversing. On both sides of the Atlantic, left-of-centre political parties are discovering that unchecked immigration poses an existential threat to their electoral prospects. Enforcing the law and limiting the influx are suddenly on the agenda. And lo and behold, the economic arguments are now trickling in, confirming that this may indeed be wise.