5 ms·
We also have the problems with having a huge illegal immigrant population and the associated costs with it. (education, health care, public assistance) When you
by vondur 16y ago
We also have the problems with having a huge illegal immigrant population and the associated costs with it. (education, health care, public assistance) When you add it all up, California is in pretty bad shape.
- rdl 16y agoWhy does illegal immigration seem to be a bigger problem in California than in Texas? Maybe my perception of the relative problems is wrong, but certainly Californians complain a lot more about illegal immigrants (specifically, Mexicans and other Hispanics; not generally Asians) than Texans. Is it just that Texas is less doomed overall? Or that the economy and government of Texas are more able to benefit from immigrants? Or something else?
- jacobolus 16y agoIt’s because stirring up racist nativist voters with anti-immigrant rhetoric is (seen as) a more useful political strategy in CA than TX. Unfortunately it’s both sides of the aisle: one of Senator Feinstein’s more shameful episodes was her support of stupid immigration policy (with back-up from the Clinton white house) in the 1990s, which she thought would help her politically.
- jacobolus 16y agoUndocumented workers pay more in taxes (automatically withheld from their paychecks just like everyone else’s) than they take out in services.
- rdl 16y agoI think that is not accurate. While undocumented workers pay more into FICA-funded programs than they take out in services, those are generally federal. Illegals probably consume higher per-capita services than legal immigrants or citizens, if for no other reason than being lower income. Lower income people consume roughly comparable amounts of some services, and consume higher per capita police, locally-funded health clinic, etc. resources. As well, they're unlikely to pay as much per capita property tax (via rentals). If they have children, their education would cost more (due to ESL programs), although I'm not sure what the rate of having children is among this class.
- sprout 16y agoI was in a Bilingual kindergarten class in Texas, which has been a lifelong boon, as a native English speaker. Children pick up language pretty easily. If we're putting the adults through ESL courses, that could be a serious drain. Even more for children born in the states - many won't ever properly learn Spanish, even when their parents mostly speak it in the home. On the rest of your points, undocumented workers primarily rely on charity, not on the government. They don't want to run the risk more often that they need to. They're not going to go to any free clinics that accept tax dollars, and they're not going to want to attract the attention of the police.
- rdl 16y agoSecond (and more) languages are definitely valuable for the US -- having immigrants living in the US with fluency in their heritage language as well as English makes it easier for US companies to do business in foreign countries, and domestic people learning foreign languages helps as well. I tried to find stats on the net costs of illegal immigrants resident in the US, and really couldn't find anything conclusive. The best information seems to be that they could impose slight net costs on some communities, but that it's a relatively minor amount relative to the size of budgets. I definitely wouldn't say California's problems are mainly due to illegal immigration. I'm just curious why it is so much more of a political issue in some states than others.
- protomyth 16y agoknowing the language of the majority makes you normal; knowing your own language and the language of the majority give you an advantage; not knowing the language of the majority sets you up to be a lifelong victim and pawn of people who seek power in your name
- vondur 16y agoMost undocumented workers are paid under the table, and hence pay no payroll taxes.
- jacobolus 16y agoI don’t know the numbers off hand, but a very large percentage are paid as if they had papers: employers don’t want to get in trouble and if they pay people normally they can later play dumb “oh I didn’t know that wasn’t his social security number” etc.
- protomyth 16y agogetting caught messing with I9 forms as an employer is not cheap
- jberryman 16y agoyour assertion that our illegal immigrant population plays a significant factor in CA's budget problems deserves a huge <citation needed>.