Brexit's immigration bust

Among the many promises that preceded Britain’s exit from the European Union was that it would end free immigration from the continent. By doing so, Britain would boost productivity and wages by reducing the influx of low-skilled workers who were taking jobs from needy Britons.

It hasn’t worked out that way, and the result offers some lessons for fear-mongers in the U.S. who fret that immigrants are taking away American jobs.

As The Economist reports, real output per worker in Britain’s agriculture and food manufacturing has not risen, and in some cases has fallen. Businesses have not increased investment significantly, nor have they raised wages to attract domestic workers.

When Brexit blocked the flow of workers in 2020, fruit rotted in the fields and pigs were shot for lack of meat processors. There weren’t enough truck drivers to get groceries to stores.

“Britons may say they want lower immigration, but they also want more migrant nurses, doctors and fruit-pickers,” the newspaper wrote. With EU workers barred, non-EU immigrants from countries such as India and Ukraine replaced them.

The situation is not unique. Florida enacted a sweeping law in July to crack down on hiring undocumented immigrants. It’s already stalling construction projects around the state, and costs for roofers, masons and painters are rising. That was before the damage from Hurricane Idalia. Florida is likely to find, as Houston did after Hurricane Harvey, that rebuilding will rely on immigrant workers, undocumented or not.

In 2011, Alabama enacted one of the harshest anti-immigrant laws in U.S. history, with results similar to Brexit’s aftermath in Britain. Tomato farmers couldn’t find workers and foreign manufacturers threatened to leave the state. By some estimates, the state’s economy faced losses of almost $11 billion, or more than 6 percent of gross domestic product, as many as 140,000 jobs were in jeopardy, and lost tax revenue was expected to top $264.5 million. Two years? later, the law was abandoned. Parts were declared unconstitutional, others were simply unworkable or politically unsustainable.

All these laws are designed to assuage a political anger, a misplaced belief that immigrants displace domestic workers. That belief has haunted America’s immigration policies since Congress adopted the first sweeping immigration law in the 1920s. But then as now, immigration is the key to rising productivity and growth. The laws may satisfy a certain segment of voters, but in the long run, such measures foster economic stagnation and wind up hurting the very workers they purport to protect.