The "Bureau" on Immigration

The Fourth International Bureau (also known as the Bureau of the Fourth International) issued a statement entitled Stop inhumane policies against immigrants (cross-posted in Socialist Action). As with most articles written by a committee it tends toward the inarticulate--full of emotion and short on common sense.

The lede paragraph, however, is mostly true. (Ellipses in original.)

Children separated from their families and caged in Trump’s USA, thousands drowning as they cross the Mediterranean, boats transporting migrants refused the right to dock by Salvini’s Italy, Orban’s Hungary declaring that helping refugees is a crime, 370 thousand Rohingya fleeing from [Myanmar] to Bangladesh after another military raid and massacres by Myanmar government, tens of thousands of economic refugees from Haiti and Venezuela spreading throughout South American countries, more than five million Syrian refugees outside the country and even more internally displaced .… Those who hold power in Old Europe and the Americas are joined in a holy witch hunt against the spectre of “migrants”: a wide ranging alliance embracing the populists of the right and what remains of the traditional Social Democrats. Salvini and Macron, Putin and Trump – chauvinists from the east and the west, French liberals and German police…

The Bureau leaves out other examples, e.g., the Banyamulenge of Eastern Congo. They're a Tutsi tribe who migrated to the region in the 16th Century. Their citizenship is hotly disputed by their neighbors to this very day--and that was the proximate cause of the Congo civil war that left five million dead before it was over.

Or the immigration of Jews into Palestine, which unlike the other cases the Bureau opposes, calling it an "occupation." They side instead with Hamas, demanding the extermination of the Jews. So much for free migration of all peoples!

There is such a thing as culture, and immigration beyond a certain point is just an invasion. Ask the native Slavs about the mass immigration of Magyars in year 850, or Native Americans about the immigration of Europeans. Some warn that Sweden will become a majority-Muslim country by 2040--after which the several thousand year old Scandinavian culture will simply disappear.

The Bureau-crats

...demand the right to migrate: freedom of movement and settlement. As internationalists we believe it is a fundamental right of every person to be able to live with dignity and enjoy all the political and social rights of the country where they reside.

This is just silly. No human society--capitalist or otherwise--has ever agreed to such a program.

The problem is most acute in Europe, adjacent to both Africa and South Asia--the only bits of the world where human populations are still rapidly growing. European fertility rates are so low that native populations are shrinking. The Bureau opines that "[t]he numbers arriving in the North – representing there between 0.5 and 1.5 per cent of the population – could easily be assimilated." They don't say as a percent of what, but I assume it's of the native population. Over twenty years, coupled with high immigrant birth rates, leads to the pickle that Sweden finds itself in right now. And no, these new immigrants cannot be easily assimilated.

The situation in the US is less dire, partly because we're such a big country, and mostly because fertility rates in most of Latin America are barely above the US average (if that high). Further, migration from Mexico is now reversing, with many returning to their home country. This is in part because of the significant improvement in the Mexican economy over the past 20 years.

To clarify the Bureau's errors, let's pick a hypothetical example. A certain Mrs. Wetback arrives illegally in Los Angeles with her six year old son. I pick that name not merely to pull the Bureau's chain (though that, too), but because it symbolizes a lot about her. She is from El Salvador, about 40 years old, illiterate, does not speak English, and has endured great hardships to come to the United States.

Mrs. Wetback's motives were not just economic, but also to avoid violence. The basic political unit in El Salvador is the street gang--and her neighborhood had become a battleground between rivals. The result was it became harder and harder for her to keep her $3/day job--she took her life in her hands just going to work.

In Los Angeles she gets a job as a nanny, caring for the children of Mr. & Mrs. Johnson. It's not a live-in position--she spends 90 minutes on the bus getting to work each morning. She is paid $7/hour in cash, weekly, but with no benefits. Her daily pay is $42, or 14x what she was earning in El Salvador!

About which the Bureau remarks:

As often in the past, migrants suffer a double exploitation, especially in some “exemplary” sectors like agriculture, logistics or social care.

By their lights Mrs. Wetback should be paid at least $15/hour with full benefits. Or better yet, she shouldn't have to work at all, but instead depend on welfare and free public housing.

Mr. Johnson is a truck driver, and is often away from home several days at a time. Mrs. Johnson is a nurse, and while she makes good money, she works overtime as often as she can. Between the two of them the couple bring home about $120K annually before taxes.

Mrs. Johnson is paid $30/hour, which after paycheck deductions yields her $20/hour. From that she has to pay Mrs. Wetback $7, leaving her $13/hour as a net profit from her labors. That's less than the Bureau's minimum wage.

If the Bureau gets its way, Mrs. Wetback will need $15/hour, plus benefits, which means that Mrs. Johnson takes a net loss. Obviously she would then stay home and take care of her own kids. Mrs. Wetback will be unemployed. The net effect of the Bureau's demands is to make everybody poorer.

So here is an interesting question: Why does Mrs. Wetback get a 1400% raise just for crossing the border? The standard answer is because American productivity is much higher than Salvadoran. Certainly Mrs. Wetback isn't any more productive--she still can't speak English, nor can she read or write. But her employers are more productive, which means they can afford to hire her (unless the Bureau succeeds in reducing everybody to poverty). In El Salvador very few people can afford nursing care or fresh fruits from foreign countries--so there's less need for nurses or truck drivers. Which means that Mrs. Wetback earns less money. Much less.

Mrs. Wetback benefits from being around rich people because rich people can afford to pay her money. The Bureau's solution is to confiscate the wealth of all the rich people, after which Mrs. Wetback's only option will be to go on welfare and become a slave of the state.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Wetback and her son settle in a Salvadoran neighborhood. As with all such neighborhoods the political unit is the street gang. As a teenager her son does what he has to do--he joins a gang, meaning in all likelihood he'll get killed or end up in prison.

So much for assimilation.

Further Reading:

• Venezuela
• If You Really Care About the Poor
• Immigration? Si!