Latinos In The Work Force
Why Americans Think (Wrongly) That Illegal Immigrants Hurt the Economy (May 2010)
The Newsweek report concludes “the consensus among most economists is that immigration, both legal and illegal, provides a small net boost to the economy. Immigrants provide cheap labor, lower the prices of everything from produce to new homes, and leave consumers with a little more money in their pockets. They also replenish—and help fund benefits for—an aging American labor force that will retire in huge numbers over the next few decades. Also, an increase in the number of American workers is needed to prevent the U.S. from having too few working-age adults to pay for retiree benefits in a few decades, as many European nations currently do. http://www.newsweek.com/2010/05/14/why-americans-think-wrongly-that-illegal-immigrants-hurt-the-economy.html
Does Immigration Cost Jobs? (May 2010)
According to Fact Check.org “Study after study has shown that immigrants grow the economy, expanding demand for goods and services that the foreign-born workers and their families consume, and thereby creating jobs. There is even broad agreement among economists that while immigrants may push down wages for some, the overall effect is to increase average wages for American-born workers. http://www.factcheck.org/2010/05/does-immigration-cost-jobs/
Share of Wallet: Hispanics (February 2010)
A Mintel International Group study found that “Hispanic purchasing power is as diverse as the consumers it represents. It is $1 trillion strong and is growing faster than the purchasing power of any other group.” Read more at: http://www.the-infoshop.com/report/mt114718-us-hispanics.html Related Fact Sheet (October 2010): http://www.abanow.org/wordpress/wp-content/files_flutter/1287001646USHispanicsstatistics.pdf
Immigrants and the Economy: Contribution of Immigrant Workers to the Country’s 25 Largest Metropolitan Areas (December 2009)
This report from the Fiscal Policy Institute concludes that immigration to the United States is “broad and diverse, bringing clear overall benefits to the economy.” Read it at http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/ImmigrantsIn25MetroAreas_20091130.pdf or a press release at http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/Release_ImmigrantsAndTheEconomy_25MetroAreas_20091130.pdf. To watch or read a media report from NY1 (in Spanish) on this study (January 22, 2010) visit: http://www.ny1noticias.com/13-portada-news-content/112453/-em-reporte—em–inmigrantes-ayudan-al-crecimiento-econ%C3%B3mico-de-ee-uu
Immigrants do not take jobs away from African Americans (July 2009)
Anti-immigrant groups have repeatedly tried to drive a wedge between African Americans and immigrants by capitalizing on the myth that immigrants take American jobs-particularly jobs that would otherwise go to African Americans. That myth, as anti-immigrant groups present it, is simply not true, says Gerald Jaynes, a professor of Economics and African American Studies at Yale University. In a new Perspectives piece for the Immigration Policy Center, A Conversation about the Economic Effects of Immigration on African Americans, Jaynes dispels the myth that immigrants take “black jobs” and instead suggests we find solutions on how to lift up all low-wage American workers. Read more at: http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/perspectives/conversation-about-economic-effects-immigration-african-americans
Dollars without Sense: Underestimating the Value of Less-Educated Workers (May 2007)
A new policy paper from the Immigration Policy Center debunks myths about the costs and contributions of immigrant working at less-skilled jobs. Read the report at: http://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/special-reports/dollars-without-sense-underestimating-value-less-educated-workers
The Economic Logic of Illegal Immigration (April 2007)
In a new study done for the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations, Gordon H. Hanson, a professor of economics and director of the Center on Pacific Economies at the University of California at San Diego, found that from a purely economic view – the benefits and costs of illegal immigration come close to canceling out one another. But without the highly flexible, low-skilled, cheap labor supply that illegal immigration provides, the U.S. economy would be slowed. No other labor pool – native or legal immigrant – offers what the pure economics of supply and demand dictate. Hanson’s study looked at labor supply and demand, wages, immigrant contributions and costs as percentages of Gross Domestic Product and border enforcement costs as a percentage of GDP. He analyzed the issue strictly on the basis of economics, pointing out that the illegal immigration debate includes issues he did not address – national security, civil rights and politics. “This analysis concludes that there is little evidence that legal immigration is economically preferable to illegal immigration,” Hanson wrote. At the same time, “There are many reasons to be concerned about rising levels of illegal immigration,” he said in the study. “Yet … it is critical not to lose sight of the fact that illegal immigration has a clear economic logic: It provides U.S. businesses with the types of workers they want, when they want them, and where they want them.” Legal immigration does not meet those labor needs as readily, Hanson said, because it is subject to politics, timing and other considerations. If immigration reform now being debated in Congress makes illegal immigration more like legal immigration – by imposing noneconomic considerations – “it is likely to lower rather than raise national welfare,” Hanson said. Mostly involved are low-skilled workers – in construction, restaurants, janitorial and agriculture – Hanson wrote. Illegal immigration is the main supplier of such labor, because the low-skilled, native-born U.S. labor pool has shrunk. http://irps.ucsd.edu/assets/022/8797.pdf
Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States (March 2007)
Guestworkers who come to the United States are routinely cheated out of wages; forced to mortgage their futures to obtain low-wage, temporary jobs; held virtually captive by employers who seize their documents; forced to live in squalid conditions; and denied medical benefits for injuries, according to a new report released by the Center today. Employers in 2005 “imported” more than 121,000 temporary H-2 guestworkers — 32,000 H-2A workers for agricultural work and 89,000 H-2B workers for jobs in forestry, seafood processing, landscaping, construction and other non-agricultural industries. “The mistreatment of temporary foreign workers in America today is one of the major civil rights issues of our time,” said SPLC President Richard Cohen. “For too long, we’ve reaped the economic benefits of their labor but have ignored the incredible degree of abuse and exploitation they endure. The 48 page Southern Poverty Law Center report is available at: http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/close-to-slavery-guestworker-programs-in-the-united-states
Study Finds Immigrants Don’t Hurt U.S. Jobs
Rapid increases in the foreign-born population at the state level are not associated with negative effects on the employment of native-born workers. An analysis of the relationship between growth in the foreign-born population and the employment outcomes of native-born workers revealed wide variations but no consistent pattern across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The size of the foreign-born workforce, its relative youth and low education level are also unrelated to the employment prospects for native workers. These findings emerge from the analysis of Census Bureau data for the boom years of the 1990s and the subsequent recession and slowdown. Pew Hispanic Center. August 10, 2006 http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=69
The Labor Force Status of Short-Term Unauthorized Workers
This fact sheet examines the labor force status of unauthorized workers who have been in the country for five years or less, providing estimates of the number of short-term unauthorized workers by industry and occupation as well as their weekly earnings and unemployment rate. Pew Hispanic Center. April 13, 2006 http://pewhispanic.org/factsheets/factsheet.php?FactsheetID=16