Externalities of Low‑Skill Migration

Low‑skilled immigration can create measurable negative externalities (housing pressure, wage competition, fiscal strains, and social friction) that in many developed settings may offset the modest labour‑market complementarities proponents emphasize. Policy debates often rely on long‑run abstract models; this article argues we need to quantify short‑run, distributional externalities at local scales and account for demographic and institutional context (e.g., Japan vs. U.S.). — If true, immigration policy should be redesigned around place‑specific externality accounting (housing, public services, crime/labor impacts) rather than global GDP‑centric models.