By Ted Belman
Haaretz reported;
Earlier this month, an article in Makor Rishon, an ideological flagship of the Israeli right, declared “The time has come for a public campaign for the deportation of all the illegals.”
The writer, Tzachi Levy, cited government figures showing that a total of at least 230,000 non-citizens are resident in Israel without permits, including, he said, no fewer than 100,000 West Bank Palestinians, some in Israeli Arab towns and villages, others in East Jerusalem, others still among Negev Bedouin.
Obviously Israel is tolerating this but should it or for how long.
@ Hugo Schmidt-Fischer:
Good comments but
a) low wage jobs for anybody bring wages down generally.
b) if prices go up but wages go up with it, then it evens out eventually even if there is some inflation in between, as competition will naturally bring prices down.
c) Removing restrictions on Jewish settlement will lower prices by increasing supply and increase wages by increasing the demand for labor. And, I agree, that should be Jewish labor but you don’t want what you have here, where companies hire people who have other sources of income like kids and retired people as part-timers so they can avoid hiring people who need to support themselves and families. Kids and new Jewish immigrants should stay in school until they have skills, but if they don’t, they can’t be allowed to fall between the cracks. I really don’t see the need for non-Jewish immigrants to Israel, or any at all for the forseeable future to America. Everybody should take care of their own, first. Immigration brings down wages. Thanks to Trump’s immigration policies, on the one hand, and his actions to bring back native capital and encourage investment through cutting red tape, on the other, African-American unemployment is at a historic, I think, all-time low, and this is serving to heal the divisions here as well.
It’s interesting the Farakhan’s rag, which is sold in subway newstands, says that Trump is not the healer. Interesting they feel the need to say that.
@ Hugo Schmidt-Fischer:
Thanks for your contribution to the discussion.
50 years ago, Israel, being a development country, sold oranges, sunny weather for tourists and bottles with colored sand.
For refugees escaped from death by the skin of their teeth, without capital, it was a welcome occupation. It provided low paying wages, but beggars cannot be choosers.
You start out modestly, accumulate capital and knowledge, accept simple chores and grow. As your economy improves, wages rise and it is difficult for Jaffa oranges to compete with destitute farm labor in Brazil.
So orange growers or building contractors react by importing cheap labor from the third world. This is in the interest of orange growers, but is it in the interest of the country as a whole?
You sort of import a piece of the third world into your country. Yet history has shown that the Jewish nation cannot live unharmed among the nations. So why convert your country into a non-Jewish entity?
It would be better for the orange growers to convert into high-tech enterprises. For a part this has been happening already.
It is true that Israeli housing is very expensive, especially in relation to average wages. An increase in wages would exacerbate the problem. But expensive housing occurs in spite of the fact that the construction industry relies on cheap unskilled labor often bordering on slave conditions. The ills of the housing malaise have very clear other roots. Housing prices could be easily alleviated. The willing and eager though hapless Mr. Kachlon has not figured that out yet.
Germany was confronted with a similar dilemma during the 1960s. In order to remain competitive, automobile manufacturers started importing Turkish laborers. The result is that 50% of children born today are Muslim. How will Germany look in 25 years?
Other countries have chosen a more successful path. Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Monaco have extremely restrictive immigration policies. Illegals are not tolerated whatsoever. Legal immigrants are accepted. But they must demonstrate they are definitely adding high value. And unemployment rates remain very low.
The result is that menial jobs are replaced by capital intensive machinery and automation in every corner of life. Salaries are high. But unlike Germany these countries do not produce automobiles. So what.
Of course, some low paying jobs are welcome. It allows teenagers, the lesser educated or gifted and new immigrants still lacking language or localized skills to acquire on-the-job experience as they move upwards. Israel has enough of these job seekers, and they should not be made to compete against foreign workers, whether illegal or otherwise.
Illegals must be made to leave. As in any successful economy, legal foreign employees should only be granted permits on a very restrictive basis.