The belief that immigration simply displaces American workers relies on the assumption that employers do nothing but replace a costlier domestic labor force with cheaper imported labor. But in truth, companies actually invest and expand to reap the higher profits that the new labor allows. This provides new opportunities for immigrants and domestic workers alike.
Restaurants are much less common in Norway than the United States because Norway
lacks the cheap labor — making a dinner out in Oslo prohibitively expensive. In many New York restaurants, the American waiters and maitre d’ owe their jobs to the underpaid immigrants working illegally in the kitchen, whose low wages allow the restaurant to exist.
