Several days ago I wrote (here) about the severe problem of black high school dropouts, a problem that is substantially beyond the reach of anti-discrimination law or policy.
Now comes Mickey Kaus, quoting Paul Krugman (of all people), who in turn quotes what he calls “serious, non-partisan research”:
Because Mexican immigrants have much less education than the average U.S. worker, they increase the supply of less-skilled labor, driving down the wages of the worst-paid Americans. The most authoritative recent study of this effect, by George Borjas and Lawrence Katz of Harvard, estimates that U.S. high school dropouts would earn as much as 8 percent more if it weren’t for Mexican immigration. [Emph. added by Kaus]
Kaus concludes:
The effect of immigrants in driving down the wages of unskilled African-American men is not just an economic question. It’s a profound social question. Only by offering a decent living through legitimate work will we have a chance of integrating the large segment–maybe almost half–of the black male populations that’s currently spinning off into a separate, destructive, “left behind” culture (even as black women are joining the regular labor force in record numbers). Where’s the Congressional Black Caucus?
