If you have too many skilled people for too few jobs requiring the skill, then you can safely expect hostility to highly skilled immigrants of said skill, and a lot of hoops to be jumped for access to employment. Overall though, there are skilled jobs that go unfilled, because natives can be too expensive. For instance, Greek masons were excellent, but too few and expensive, so the influx of skilled Albanian masons was seen very positively. The jobs of Greek masons were enabled and enhanced by the presence of the Albanians. I doubt this would have been the case if Greek masons were too many, and their livelihoods threatened. So it is a game of numbers. Popularity is high when skilled people can be absorbed, but expect it to tank when there are too many.
Great summary. There’s also the argument that skill complementarities between native born and immigrants are particularly high among highly skilled -> raising everyone’s wages. It’s still not a highly plausible channel towards positive attitudes though
Thank you! Yeah, while I doubt the complementarities argument is something that is on people's minds, I do think it should be possible to explain intuitively, which can increase support even more.
True. I’ve seen people use sports as an analogy. It’s possible to show that each local player gets better if you have Messi or Giannis on your team. And then, not every highly skilled person is a Messi…
If you have too many skilled people for too few jobs requiring the skill, then you can safely expect hostility to highly skilled immigrants of said skill, and a lot of hoops to be jumped for access to employment. Overall though, there are skilled jobs that go unfilled, because natives can be too expensive. For instance, Greek masons were excellent, but too few and expensive, so the influx of skilled Albanian masons was seen very positively. The jobs of Greek masons were enabled and enhanced by the presence of the Albanians. I doubt this would have been the case if Greek masons were too many, and their livelihoods threatened. So it is a game of numbers. Popularity is high when skilled people can be absorbed, but expect it to tank when there are too many.
Great summary. There’s also the argument that skill complementarities between native born and immigrants are particularly high among highly skilled -> raising everyone’s wages. It’s still not a highly plausible channel towards positive attitudes though
Thank you! Yeah, while I doubt the complementarities argument is something that is on people's minds, I do think it should be possible to explain intuitively, which can increase support even more.
True. I’ve seen people use sports as an analogy. It’s possible to show that each local player gets better if you have Messi or Giannis on your team. And then, not every highly skilled person is a Messi…