Lant Prichett Quotes

Hispanic citizens know that illegal labor is taking jobs from their children and their legal immigrant friends.

To advocate both for more immigration and for faster wage growth for the working and middle class is to work at cross-purposes.

I don’t buy the argument that there are certain jobs that American just will not do.

Stopping illegal immigration would mean that wages would have to rise to a level where Americans would want the jobs currently taken by illegal aliens.

Workers come to America to fill jobs unwanted by Americans, but they are staying and they are not going home.

I suppose the White House thinks it's doing what Big Business wants, but it will lead to vastly increased taxes, because all these guest workers are to be allowed to bring their children.

I’ve yet to see a customer walk out of a restaurant because his dishes were being washed by an illegal alien.

While the American can out-work the alien, the alien can so far under-live the American as to force him out of all competitive labor.

Where would we be without the Italians Czechoslovaks the Portuguese the Greeks and Lebanese? Who would do the dirty work?

The system is broken …. We must secure our borders. But we have to have a way of matching willing workers with willing employers and have a way for people to do the jobs that Americans don’t seem to want to do…. But I don’t believe that we are going to take people who have been here for 40 or 50 years and ship them back where they came from…. As long as there is a demand for workers, workers will come.

The population feels the physical pressure of the foreigners coming and working here, some [of whom] are prepared to work longer hours or accept less.

I agree that we need to have real temporary foreign workers, who are working in the fields, picking fruits.

It's never been clearer that unrestrained market forces do not produce the kind of societies we aspire to - economically stable and socially inclusive, where citizens have access to secure jobs with the dignity of a fair wage and a welfare safety net.

The biggest problem in Italy is work. And out-of-control immigration damages the labor market because Italians can't compete with illegal workers who are being exploited. So to restore dignity to work, we must control immigration.

Workers who come to the U.S. see their wages and their standard of living boosted sharply simply by crossing the border. That's a good thing, and one of the best arguments for immigration reform, even if you'll rarely hear a politician make it.

There is no right to a job or a wage rate, but there is a right to move from one country to another in search of a better life. This is the point of view of Thomas Jefferson, John Locke and other great supporters of the natural rights tradition in America.

Our nation was built by pioneers - pioneers who accepted untold risks in pursuit of freedom, not by pioneers seeking offshore profits at the expense of American workers here at home.

Stop pretending there's anything wrong with businesspeople hiring diligent laborers who will work for less. Let employers sponsor any worker and argue for why that worker should be given citizenship. Such a vetting mechanism would naturally promote the best and hardest-working.

I don't know what it's like in the U.S. but immigrants in the U.K. do the jobs the citizens won't do.

I think Americans are probably getting sick of us Australians trying to take their jobs.

Immigration isn't always good for the economy or jobs.

Because the truth is, today's immigrants, as they have for generation after generation, work the longest hours at the hardest jobs for the lowest pay, jobs that are just about impossible to fill.

Quite frankly, I think if a man or a woman likes their American job, wherever they were born, they should be able to keep that job. We need a clear path to citizenship for workers who are already here and a fair and efficient on-ramp for those who want to come here.

When I came to America in the '60s, it was the place to be. I wonder if I'd come here today.

There's no doubt that Mexican men and women full of dignity, willpower and a capacity for work are doing the work that not even blacks want to do in the United States.