Business 2.0 on immigration

Great Debates
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Yesterday I was trapped in a doctor’s office for a substantial length of time, and decided that the current copy of Business 2.0 was the available publication that would be least offensive to my intelligence. This month’s cover story focuses on real estate growth prospects. They’ve identified ten areas of the United States which they believe to be certain bets for high economic growth. The ten areas are profiled, with information such as demographic trends, hot industries and business growth opportunities, government policies, real estate opportunites and other such information for each one. The claim is that each of these ten areas has an environment that’s prime for growth over the next twenty years or so. (This thread is not for debating the truth of that claim.)

One of these growth regions in Southern California and the Las Vegas area. Among the reasons why, the magazine says this:

A similar assessment is made for the Southern Arizona growth region.

Now to me this sentence says quite a lot about business attitudes towards illegal immigration. First, that it is entirely natural and normal. Second, they assume that the illegal immigrant population will continue to grow. Third, businesses can safely assume that the government will not prevent them from employing illegal immigrants in large numbers. Fourth, that depending on illegal immigrants is an all-around sound business strategy.

Of course this is just one magazine, but skimming through other business publications would certainly turn up examples of similar thinking. I think we can say this much. Business magazines tend to reach business owners, the rich, the well-connected, and the powerful. The people who read these magazines wield far more political influence than, say, a bunch of hick retirees in lawn chairs. I would say that business leaders simply depend on the current system where illegal immigrants can enter the country in large numbers but are denied the basic rights of citizens. I would imagine that they’d fight pretty viciously against any attempt to change the system.

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Where’s the debate?

It’s not surprising to me in the least why most efforts to “crack down” on illegal immigration focus on the immigrants themselves, instead of the companies that hire them.