Immigrants do not lower real wages; should not be a reason to oppose immigration

Everyone always stops at the first effect and says that's that but it is not all that. The first effect is indeed that wages in labor markets with a increase in supply of workers WILL see a decrease in wages. But that's not the whole picture

A decrease in labor costs is like a decrease in any other input cost. It reduces prices for the consumer good that those inputs were used to make. that raises the REAL wage of every single person who uses buys that consumer good. If a widget costs 10 bucks before an immigrant tide into the labor market for widgets and 5 dollars after the tide lowers wages and therefore costs, your income to buy widgets has doubled. Buying 2 instead of 1 because the price was halved is not different than buying 2 instead of 1 because you were given ten extra bucks in the non-tide market.

It goes even further than that: if a good whose price goes lower because the labor costs used to produce it decrease, then that not only benefits consumers who buy that good but also firms who use that good in their OWN production. If a widget is used as an input to make a bidget, then bidget prices would also fall. It's a ripple effect that sends positive shockwaves throughout the entire country.

Please don't use this argument to oppose immigration