NY Times: Populist Working Class Opposes Neoliberal Mass Immigration

The New York Times admits that mass immigration is “a core tenet of neoliberalism,” deeply opposed by the nation’s working class, who are most impacted by the continuous inflow of millions of foreign workers willing to work for lower wages.

In a lengthy piece detailing the rise of “neopopulism,” used to describe the growing number of Americans and lawmakers who distrust free market ideology at all costs regardless of its impact on household wealth and domestic industry, the New York Times notes that mass immigration is an unpopular policy among the working class.

“A core tenet of neoliberalism, once supported by both parties, is high immigration,” the Times‘s David Leonhardt writes:

Along with the freer movement of goods and capital, neoliberalism calls for the freer movement of people … most voters, especially working-class voters, feel differently. The soaring level of immigration during Biden’s presidency, much of it illegal, has become a political liability, and it nearly led to another piece of neopopulist legislation this year. [Emphasis added]

Thousands of migrants arrive to Ciudad Juarez aboard the train coming from the city of Chihuahua this Wednesday afternoon with the intention of passing the Mexico-United States border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on April 24, 2024. (Christian Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Despite this populist opposition from working class voters, President Joe Biden has increased the foreign-born population by 6.6 million — nearly two years of annual American births — since taking office in late January 2021.

Today, the foreign-born population stands at 51.6 million, the largest ever recorded in American history. This massive inflow of foreign nationals for hire creates downward pressure on working class wages, research has shown, while driving up housing costs due to demand and depleting employment opportunities.

Last year, the Times similarly admitted that large influxes “of workers, which includes a recovery in immigration flows, has also taken the air out of wage increases” for working class Americans and “made it more difficult for people on the margins of the labor market to find stable jobs with decent pay.”

During Biden’s presidency, economist E.J. Antoni with the Heritage Foundation has chronicled mass immigration’s impact on wages and employment for native-born Americans. His findings have ultimately shown that while foreign workers have rebounded since the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of mostly working and lower-middle class Americans have fallen onto the labor market sidelines.

“Over the last 12 months, employment of native-born Americans has been essentially flat, with all net employment growth going to foreign-born workers,” Antoni wrote earlier this month.

In addition, mass immigration helps drive up housing costs — detrimental for those Americans looking to become first-time homeowners in highly competitive markets due to growing demand.

Last year, the Times admitted that rents and housing prices in Ontario, Canada, had recently surged as a result of mass immigration, where native Canadians have been forced to compete for housing against an increasing number of immigrants.

A 2013 study by the Michael Bloomberg-funded New American Economy, which promotes mass immigration, explained how the importing of tens of millions of immigrants over decades had helped raise housing costs by $3.7 trillion for the next generation of homebuyers but spun the figure as the creation of “housing wealth.”

Axios and New York Magazine have made similar admissions.

Working class Americans continue to tell pollsters they want less immigration, even as Congress takes little action to reduce the inflow that includes a million new legal immigrants every year on top of hundreds of thousands, potentially millions, of newly arrived illegal aliens.

The latest Rasmussen Reports survey shows that nearly half of non-college-educated voters want to cut legal immigration levels by at least half. Only seven percent said the U.S. should admit more legal immigrants annually.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow him on Twitter here.