Professor James Newell of Salford University, in his latest posting in LSE blogs about the Italian election result, thinks that in Italy
immigration is essential to helping Italy overcome its economic problems, especially to ensure the sustainability of the pensions system, since immigrants are on average younger than Italians and have a higher fertility rate.The same arguments apply to other Western and Eastern European countries.
But why not use robots instead?
Immigrants grow old, retire, fall ill and, in sufficient numbers, create ethnic minorities that change a country very markedly and reduce social cohesion. Robots do not do any of these things.
If Italy were to follow the example of Japan and remain ethnically homogeneous this could be the catalyst is to put money into robots and information technology.
The other possibility is to bring in immigrants on a contract basis and for them to go home when their contract is over. This is the basis on which foreigners work in the Gulf states and many countries around the world.
especially to ensure the sustainability of the pensions system, since immigrants are on average younger than Italians and have a higher fertility rate.
ReplyDeleteExcept that immigrants in many cases turn out to be a permanent drain on the welfare system so they actually make the situation worse rather than better.
Check out this good news from the USA; https://www.npr.org/2018/03/12/592823598/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-reshapes-who-qualifies-for-asylum
ReplyDeleteThe initial purchase price of a robot is very high. A human can be hired and fired at will. Once a healthy robot industry has evolved, perhaps it will be easier to rent robots for short-term periods with little commitment, but until then, the disposability of humans makes them more attractive as employees for certain businesses with uneven revenue.
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, in the US, many employers favor illegal immigrants not only due to their wages (which are not that much lower than those of legal workers in some cases), but because there is a lot less bureaucracy associated with working with them - no paperwork, no restrictions on hiring and firing, no lawsuits etc. Some states make things easier for companies when hiring legal labor, but there are still some regulations and requirements putting up obstacles to the labor market, so it's always more efficient to conduct this type of thing outside the legal sphere.