WATCH: Immigration And World Poverty Visual Presentation Using Gumballs

I just wanted to take a moment to share my favorite visual representation of the effects of immigration on the United States, presented by Roy Beck, utilizing date from the World Bank and U.S. Census Bureau.

So, I’d like to present to you some food for thought –

Numbers USA reported this about the taxpayer burden:

Most illegal aliens are unskilled or low-skilled. The Nobel Prize-winning, liberal economist Paul Krugman has written, “Unfortunately, low-skill immigrants don’t pay enough taxes to cover the cost of the benefits they receive.” That means American taxpayers must heavily subsidize the costs of services to newcomers.

Regarding the wage depression, Numbers USA reported:

The current level of immigration has a depressive effect on the wages of workers in the United States. On average, the United States has admitted one million immigrants every year since 1990. In addition, between 700,000 and 800,000 guest workers are admitted every year. There are 28.4 million immigrants in the labor force, including over 7.5 million illegal aliens.

In order to bolster their claims that immigration can only have positive effects on American workers, those who defend the status quo, and those who demand higher levels of immigration, have long relied on economic evidence that they present in misleading ways.

In order to dismiss the negative effects on American workers, proponents of mass immigration invariably make two claims. The first is that immigrants do not compete with Americans for jobs, that immigrants only take “jobs Americans wont’ do.” Or, in the case of higher-skilled occupations, “jobs Americans can’t do.” The second is immigration “grows the economy.”

Furthermore, this is what Numbers USA had to say about immigration effects on unemployment in the US:

Government data from its Current Population Survey (and compiled by the Center for Immigration Studies) demonstrate that millions of Americans of all ages and education levels are currently unemployed, while the number of immigrant workers in the United States continues to increase.

Other work by CIS has shown that this is the result of a long-term trend where immigrants are being hired at a faster rate than U.S.-born workers.