I appreciated Charles Lawton’s March 15 Maine Sunday Telegram column, “Maine must welcome immigrants.” I hope Gov. LePage reads it. Mr. Lawton makes it clear that we cannot grow the Maine economy without growing our population, and with Maine’s current demographics, we cannot grow our population without attracting immigrants.

I hope Gov. LePage also gets the chance to read Adam Davidson’s March 29 New York Times column. Mr. Davidson explains the economic concept called the Lump of Labor Fallacy: “the erroneous notion that there is only so much work to be done and that no one can get a job without taking one from someone else.”

When new people arrive in Maine, they don’t just increase the labor supply, they also increase the demand for labor.

As they find jobs they start looking for apartments to rent, clothes to buy and food to eat. This new demand has a multiplier effect. This is true whether the person is a recent college graduate from Boston, or political asylum seeker from Burundi.

The big difference is that the asylum seeker is going to have a much rougher road. He or she is not legally allowed to work until six months after filing for asylum. During this waiting period, some new immigrants rely on General Assistance for housing and food support.

Once these new immigrants are allowed to work, they are just as motivated as the Irish, Canadians, Italians and every other wave of immigrants who have built this state. If you believe the demographers and the economists, we should be trying to make Maine an economically viable place to settle.

This includes offering short-term financial support to asylum seekers during the period they are not allowed to work.

Kevin Carley

Portland

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