4 ms·

If your goal is to reduce illegal immigration, a much cheaper way is to heavily fine anyone who employs someone without a valid work permit. For most illegal im

If your goal is to reduce illegal immigration, a much cheaper way is to heavily fine anyone who employs someone without a valid work permit. For most illegal immigrants the motivation is economic and this would reduce that motivation and bring in money from the fines instead of incurring massive cost from detention and deportation without the negative side effect (?) of deterring tourists and legal immigrants. (Of course, I think the entire goal is economic foot shooting)

graemep 2y ago
The UK does fine employers, its not sufficient to stop it because people work through dodgy contractors. The UK also fines landlords which has caused problems for people who look or sound foreign, including some British citizens (especially poor ones who tend not to have passports which are the easiest documents to check). The best proposal I have heard is to provide a cash reward to illegal immigrants for turning in people who knowingly employ them illegally. The fact that governments do not try these solutions makes me suspect they want to keep that supply of cheap labour - most illegals here work for well under minimum wage.
- disgruntledphd2 2y ago
  Yeah, it's totally doable for the US to deport all the illegal immigrants. The consequences would most likely be pretty high inflation, but it's totally doable. While I dislike the UK requirement to have a passport on your first day at work, I understand why it exists.
- ajmurmann 2y ago
  What makes it hard to investigate the dodgy contractors? I don't fully understand why this is harder than identifying illegal immigrants.
  - graemep 2y ago
    The dodgy contractors take a markup for taking the risk away from employers. A lot of them are criminals with connections to people smugglers, are both willing and able to get away with things someone with a more legitimate business would not. They are a layer of plausible deniability.
    - ajmurmann 2y ago
      I get the isolation the contractors provide but why can't one audit the contractors?

graemep 2y ago

The UK does fine employers, its not sufficient to stop it because people work through dodgy contractors. The UK also fines landlords which has caused problems for people who look or sound foreign, including some British citizens (especially poor ones who tend not to have passports which are the easiest documents to check). The best proposal I have heard is to provide a cash reward to illegal immigrants for turning in people who knowingly employ them illegally. The fact that governments do not try these solutions makes me suspect they want to keep that supply of cheap labour - most illegals here work for well under minimum wage.

disgruntledphd2 2y ago
Yeah, it's totally doable for the US to deport all the illegal immigrants. The consequences would most likely be pretty high inflation, but it's totally doable. While I dislike the UK requirement to have a passport on your first day at work, I understand why it exists.
ajmurmann 2y ago
What makes it hard to investigate the dodgy contractors? I don't fully understand why this is harder than identifying illegal immigrants.
- graemep 2y ago
  The dodgy contractors take a markup for taking the risk away from employers. A lot of them are criminals with connections to people smugglers, are both willing and able to get away with things someone with a more legitimate business would not. They are a layer of plausible deniability.
  - ajmurmann 2y ago
    I get the isolation the contractors provide but why can't one audit the contractors?