Originally Posted by Lion in Winter

Wages aren't low nor people "unskilled" because of some automatic process of supply within the US, though. A developed capitalist economy has many, many ways of controlling and manipulating the alleged "free" market. The US pool of low-cost labour extends to other countries, irrespective of who is living in whose countries. And if people are not being prepared by the education system for higher-paid work, that is also a choice being made. Schools being funded by property taxes, for example, has an immediate knock on effect in low-income areas. Nor is it an accident that there are millions of undocumented workers still working away in this country.

Really, there aren't "sides" in this discussion. It's a complicated web, and I would say that step one is absolutely to fairly invest and apply the world's riches to help the struggling countries develop well.

Originally Posted by Boiler

https://www.reuters.com/world/americ...es-2021-11-30/

​​Amid tearful goodbyes, Ana Paula Souza, her husband and their infant son set off for the United States, one of hundreds of families to depart the small Brazilian town of Alpercata in recent months.Nestled in the hills of southeastern Minas Gerais state, Alpercata has been sending its townspeople north for decades. But as locals grapple with a pandemic that has killed jobs, battered Brazil's currency and sparked double-digit inflation, a piecemeal migration from this poor, okra-farming area has become an exodus.

Important to remember that there many other migrants heading to the US.

Originally Posted by Boiler

https://www.reuters.com/world/americ...es-2021-11-30/

​​Amid tearful goodbyes, Ana Paula Souza, her husband and their infant son set off for the United States, one of hundreds of families to depart the small Brazilian town of Alpercata in recent months.Nestled in the hills of southeastern Minas Gerais state, Alpercata has been sending its townspeople north for decades. But as locals grapple with a pandemic that has killed jobs, battered Brazil's currency and sparked double-digit inflation, a piecemeal migration from this poor, okra-farming area has become an exodus.

Important to remember that there many other migrants heading to the US.

Originally Posted by DaveLovesDee

It's even more important to remember that if people hadn't migrated to what is now the US, Native Americans would still have their land. Also, other migrants made the US what it is today.

If migrants are so bad, when do you leave, because I suspect you're not wholly descended from any Native American tribes.

Originally Posted by morpeth

Yet the situation of the US economy in the 19th century or early 20th century much different, hence I am unsure how relevant "other migrants made the US what it is today".is. A points system to bring in those with the skills needed in the 21st century, and make it easier for those to come would be more logical.

Originally Posted by morpeth

A points system to bring in those with the skills needed in the 21st century, and make it easier for those to come would be more logical.

Originally Posted by Lion in Winter

I suspect that "the skills needed" are those with low qualifications. I hesitate to say "low skills" because that carries all sort of connotations. But what is being encouraged by both business and government is a strong supply of low-cost labour, both inside the country and out. Which is to say, the "system" is functioning as intended. Not ethically, note, or for the best for society, just as intended.

Originally Posted by DaveLovesDee

Given that the populations of many industrialised countries are getting older, and it seems from a quick Google search that these jobs aren't being filled fast enough by natives of those countries, low-qualifications immigration is going to be needed for a long time in care and other sectors.

Those kinds of workers tend to lose out in points-based immigration policies.

Originally Posted by Lion in Winter

Low-qualifications work is wanted. Not sure if it's needed (ie, surely an economy could function with good wages for all), but it's wanted to keep the system we have functioning as intended. People who suggest that undocumented immigration is not wanted are naive. Of course it's wanted. And it is "controlled", by policies that are 'defective' enough to allow a certain number in and to remain without the security of rights. It isn't a conspiracy, it's a system that works for capitalist countries and always has.

Originally Posted by Boiler

Well no, certainly was not a feature when I was growing up and relatively recent in the US.