Selfish Reasons for Immigration

This may have replaced drug legalization as my issue of most interest. You've heard the moral, historic, and economic reasons for and the honest concerns against increasing US immigration. Now here are some selfish reasons for it:

Immigrants will solve our housing crisis. One major reason why housing prices remain in the doldrums and sales remain slack is that there are simply too many houses for sale. The National Association of Realtors reported that in July, there were 3.98 million existing homes on the market, representing a 12.5-month supply at the current pace of sales.

Here's another:

Immigrants are needed to replenish the American workforce. While the American labor force continues to grow, the rate at which it grows has been slowing down for decades. The Bureau of Labor Services projects that by 2020, the growth rate will be just 0.4 percent per year, and by 2030 just 0.3 percent per year. Some of this is attributable to baby boomers moving into retirement homes, and some is attributable to declining birth rates.

And one more:

Immigrants make the economy better. Not only does the San Francisco Fed paper—written, appropriately, by an Italian economist, Giovanni Peri—argue that immigrants don't hurt the economy, it actually makes the case that immigrants are putting money in the pockets of native-born workers. Specifically, it says that "total immigration to the United States from 1990 to 2007 was associated with a 6.6 percent to 9.9 percent increase in real income per worker."

All of those talking about the need for a second stimulus should take my intro economics class. The best way to increase demand is to increase the number of demanders.

Related: In France at least, an increase in immigrants does not mean an increase in crime.