Robert Samuelson's argument is so self-evident no politician can ever state it. A couple of weeks back, Statistics Canada reported that, after adjustment for inflation, Canadian wage-earners are earning less than in 1980.

When advanced economies admit ever larger numbers of unskilled workers (plus a chain of relatives through "family reunification"), they are importing poverty. The President says this is to do "the jobs Americans won't do". For the sake of argument, take him at his word. So why won't Americans do them? Because they're a great way to ensure you live in poverty. So we import foreigners to be our poor people. Can we import just the right number to ensure that poverty doesn't "grow"? Unlikely.

There are arguments to be made both for and against immigration, but you can't be in favor of mass unskilled immigration and then pledge to fight the "war on poverty". It's like spooning out a bathtub with a thimble while leaving the faucets running.
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