Quote: (10-28-2012 05:18 AM)solo Wrote:
In Sweden we have recieved people from South East Asia who come here to work as berry pickers during the summers for some years now, a job Swedes don't seem to want to do. It is a risky endeavor on their part since sometimes there have not been enough berries or they have been scammed, but a lot of the time amazingly they have been payed enough to cover the travel costs and return with more money than they would have had, had they stayed in SEA.
There are other jobs which don't require a long university education for someone to be productive at. For instance housekeeping etc.
Also, I think with the financial/economic crisis, the Welfare State will continue to be dismantled in the EU. Or what negative externalities are you talking about?
In your limited berry picker case, Sweden may well benefit, on net. But that's not the way immigration usually is. In America, for instance, you have poor Mexicans and Guatemalans coming and working low wage jobs. They have families, with above average fertility. Each child costs the educational system at least $10k a year, probably $15k a year. Then there are the added costs of healthcare, law enforcement, increase in land prices due to population increase... If it were just single, well-behaved adults coming and working, there might be a net benefit. But it isn't that way.
In a welfare state, below some level of income, people are a drain on the system, depending on the benefits they receive. It's not enough for immigrant labor to be cheap. But big business likes it because the costs are borne by the people, not by the corporation. Plus it grows the market for their goods.
Also, a lot of the times the cost of something, like produce, would only need to go up a couple percent to double the wages paid to labor. So having to pay higher wages to natives is not as challenging as it might seem.