The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and The Partnership For A New American Economy released a new report last month about immigrants in the United States and their impact on employment levels for native-born workers.   You can download the entire article at http://www.aei.org/article/society-and-culture/immigration/immigration-and-american-jobs/.

Do Immigrants Take Our Jobs?

Principal Investigator, Madeline Zavodny of Agnes Scott College in Georgia led the effort.   The report helps me respond to the sometimes inflammatory claim:  ”Immigrants in the U.S. take our jobs!”  Their findings, presented with appropriate caution and caveat, provide fresh and thoughtful data for a constructive conversation about immigration policy in the U.S. — especially as it affects our economy.   

I share their results here with some shred of hope that the report might gain traction with the media and stimulate a renewed interest in immigration reform during the campaign and — perhaps — for real policy-making (call me crazy).

 Zavodny and her team conducted a state-level comparison to address this question, “In states with more immigrants, are U.S. natives more or less likely to have a job?

There Is No Evidence That Immigration Hurts U.S. Employment

Here is a summary of their results:

• For all types of foreign-born workers in the U.S., regardless of their legal status, “the data show no evidence that immigration hurts U.S. employment” (p10).  This finding holds true for educated and uneducated, skilled and less-skilled immigrants.
• “Immigrants with advanced degrees overall create jobs for U.S. natives” (p10).  This result is most dramatic for immigrants who received advanced degrees from U.S. universities and are working in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) occupations.  In short, U.S.-educated immigrants working in STEM fields actually boost U.S.-born employment.  The result is similar but not as dramatic for immigrants who received their education outside the U.S. [1]     
• There is a significant, positive association between the number of temporary immigrants (skilled and less-skilled) and employment levels for U.S. natives.  Two important caveats here:  1) This result applies to skilled and less-skilled immigrants in non-agricultural jobs.  However, a positive association was also found for temporary, less-skilled, agricultural immigrants but there were not enough data to establish statistical significance.  2) These results do not suggest a causal relationship, and therefore do not suggest that temporary immigrants cause an increase in employment for U.S.-born workers.  Instead, the report indicates only that a positive relationship exists (p11).  In other words, the study found only that in states where there are more temporary immigrants, there tends to be a higher level of employment for U.S.-born workers.  

De-Bunking The Freeloader Myth

Zavodny also found that “on average, immigrants pay more in taxes than their families receive in federal benefits from major programs such as welfare, unemployment benefits, food stamps, and Medicaid.”  Moreover, immigrants with more education tend to pay more taxes (because they earn more money), and they receive less in government benefits.

Bringing In More Highly Skilled Workers Will Create American Jobs

Three policy actions are recommended by the Zavodny report with the goal of increasing employment in the U.S. and strengthening our economy (p13-14).  

1. The U.S. should prioritize immigration by workers in STEM fields who hold advanced degrees from U.S. universities.  The study estimates that an additional 100,000 of these foreign born workers “could lead to an additional 262,000 American jobs.”  
2. The U.S. should increase the number of green cards for highly skilled workers.  The study estimates that an increase of 100,000 highly skilled immigrants (especially those with advanced degrees) ”could lead to an additional 44,000 jobs” for Americans. 
3. The U.S. should expand temporary worker programs for both skilled and less-skilled foreign workers.  According to the report, there is a strong case for streamlining and expanding immigrant guest worker programs to serve the American market more effectively” (p14).       

Tinkering Around The Edges Or Comprehensive Reform?

As much as I applaud the AEI study and its recommendations, I wonder if these recommendations (and others we have seen lately) are only tinkering around the edges of our immigration problems.

For example, the Obama Administration recently announced a new prioritization strategy to reduce the backlog of deportation cases for immigrants found in the U.S. without documentation.  The Administration will attempt to focus first on cases for which there is a criminal violation or a national security.  All other pending cases are to be placed on administrative hold.  This sounds good and will probably save a lot of money, and prevent a lot of heartache, but it is tinkering around the edges of a broken immigration system.

Here is another example.  Under an old policy, when a family-based green card becomes available, an undocumented immigrant is required to return to his/her country of origin to receive the visa.  To return to the United States, she must obtain a waiver from our government.  If our government denies the waiver for any reason, she could possibly be barred from returning to the United States for years.  Some families wait years or even decades to reunite with their loved ones.  A proposed change in policy would enable undocumented immigrants with a U.S.-citizen spouse or parent to interview for a provisional waiver while still in the United States. If they are eligible to receive the waiver, they would then return to their home country for final green card processing.  Sounds good because it keeps families together longer, but it is only tinkering around the edges of a broken immigration system.  

Versions of the well-known DREAM Act target young immigrants brought to this country by their parents as children, without documentation.  If the DREAM Act is ever passed, and if its very strict criteria are adhered to, some of these young people would have the opportunity to pursue a college education or military service in this country with temporary legal status.[2]  This sounds good, but it is tinkering around the edges of a broken immigration system.

If the policy changes recommended by the American Enterprise Institute’s Zavodny study are implemented, a greater number of foreign-born persons seeking work in this country would gain legal status for entry and employment.  Such workers would serve the American labor market effectively and boost our economy.  This sounds good, but it is tinkering around the edges of a broken immigration system.

I am a pragmatist.  I welcome all of these changes, even if they only tinker around the edges.  At least they appear to represent compassionate, effective tinkering, and appear to provide positive outcomes for families and for our economy.     

Lack Of Political (Or Pragmatic) Will

The Obama Administration and Congress have not mustered up the will to fix our broken immigration system in a more comprehensive manner.  And so we are bleeding – good workers, good families, good opportunities.  One by one, slowly.  According to this recent AEI report, we are wasting the opportunity to strengthen our economy by inviting workers into our labor force who — the data seem to show — would boost employment levels for many U.S.-born workers. 

Sadly, this is an election year, in which I expect a surplus of rhetoric and a deficit of political will.  Regardless, we need comprehensive immigration reform.  For now, though, even if its the best we can do, we must settle for a bit of good tinkering around the edges. 

 © Copyright by Jeffrey Y. Harlow, PhD (2012)

1. A causal relationship is suggested here by using a 2 stage least squares (2SLS)  regression instead of ordinary least squares (OLS) regression.  Using 2SLS regression, a variable that is well correlated with changes in immigrant employment but not related to changes in native employment rate is used as an instrumental variable to capture the relationship between the part of immigrant employment not related to economic conditions and the native employment rate.  See details about this on p16.
2. See my November 23, 2010 article, A Good First Step To Send The Right Message.

Related posts:

1. They Are Leaving Alabama
2. Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor … Still
3. Today The News Is Good For Immigrants In Virginia
4. Going Public On Immigration Reform. Gulp.
5. Who Are These Kids?