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When it comes to immigration, the pro-labor
camp finds itself in an awkward position. How can it choose between
workers who are citizens and workers who are not? But Israel,
which, like this country, is also a country of immigrants, has
shown that immigration does not have to involve a choice. On
the contrary, good policies immigration can be an asset that
benefits all members in society, new immigrants as well as old-timers.
Of course, Israel's immigration
policies were established for all the wrong reasons and the goal
of these policies remains changing the racial composition of
Israel and the occupied territories. But it is this very goal
that forced Israel to establish policies that cause all classes
of (Jewish) society to support immigration.
What makes Israel a laboratory
for the study of immigration policies is the size of its immigration.
In the U.S., 39% of the population growth in the years 1990-2004
was due to immigration; in Israel during the same period 86%
of the population growth was due to immigration. Of course, the
concern in the U.S. is not about all immigrants, just about illegal
immigrants. Labor is concerned that because immigrants come
without any assets they are forced to accept whatever low wages
are offered to them, driving wages down. Many American taxpayers
are concerned that illegal immigrants may need public assistance
because of their poverty. In Israel, on the other hand, virtually
all of the immigrants are legal. But this is actually not an
important difference, because the immigrants who come to Israel
are nevertheless extremely poor. Most of them, 80% in the years
1990-2004, come from the former Soviet Union. So how does Israel
deal with this influx of destitute immigrants?
The major difference between
the U.S. and Israel when it comes to immigration is that while
the U.S. government wants to stop economic refugees from coming,
the Israeli government wants to encourage Jews to come, regardless
of their economic situation. And it is this difference that makes
the Israeli policies instructive. The dilemma for Israel is that
on the one hand it must treat its immigrants well, or they will
stop coming. On other hand, if the government wants the public
to support immigration, it cannot afford for its citizens to
harbor anti-immigration sentiments, certainly not of the sort
that resulted in Proposition 187 in California, for instance.
(That proposition called for denying public benefits to illegal
immigrants and only an intervention by the courts prevented it
from becoming law.) The Israeli solution to its dilemma is the
mother of all paradoxes: How does the Israeli government make
its citizens welcome these destitute immigrants? By showering
the immigrants with generous public assistance.
Jews who immigrate to Israel
receive welfare for 18 months, which in Israel is not called
welfare but "Assured Income." In addition, immigrants
get subsidized mortgages if they wish to buy apartments and rental
subsidies for five years if they wish to rent. Immigrants can
also get free vocational training, and grants are given to university
students. Finally, free health insurance is available to all
immigrants for six months.
But perhaps this is less paradoxical
than it seems. What these public benefits do in the first place
is to stop the immigrants from accepting, out of desperation,
wages that are too low. Such low wages would make not only the
immigrants themselves poor, it would also push everyone else's
wages down. The vocational courses make the immigrants more productive
and push their wages even higher. Second, because these immigrants
are given ample means with which to buy or rent homes and the
many other commodities that immigrants need, their arrival gives
the Israeli economy a serious boost, one that benefits all Israelis.
Of course, taxpayers do pay for these benefits. But the burden
of the immigration is borne by the entire Israeli population,
instead of by a select group"by lower wage workers"as
is the case in this country. And in the end, the expense proves
not to be a burden but instead a good investment, since once
the immigratns start working they are in position to pay back
much more than they have received.
In the U.S., the debate about
immigration pits the camp that sees immigrants as destitute people
who deserve sympathy against the camp that sees immigrants as
competitors in the lower wage labor markets. The Israeli experience
shows that immigrants do not have to be either pitied or loathed.
With the right policies, what,s good for immigrants can be good
for old timers as well. This is a trick worth learning and applying,
not only to immigrants but to low wage workers in general.
Moshe Adler is the director of Public Interest
Economics, an economic consulting firm and I teach economics
in the department of urban planning at Columbia. He can be reached
at ma820@columbia.edu
or through my website: www.columbia.edu/~ma820
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