Immigration, Poverty and Low-Wage Earners
The Harmful Effect of Unskilled Immigrants on American Workers
The full report is available in pdf format.
Executive Summary
Today’s immigration system is dysfunctional because it is not responsive to
the socioeconomic conditions of the country. Only a small share of legally
admitted immigrants is sponsored by employers while the bulk are admitted
because of family ties to earlier immigrants who may be living in poverty or
near poverty. As a result, immigration contributes to an already-existing
surplus of low-skilled workers, increasing job competition and driving down
wages and conditions to the detriment of American workers. The presence of a
large illegal workforce perpetuates a vicious cycle as degraded work conditions
discourage Americans from seeking these jobs and make employers more dependent
on an illegal foreign workforce. America’s massive low-skill labor force and
illegal alien population allow employers to offer low pay and deplorable
conditions.
These harmful effects of the immigration system were recognized in the
reports of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform in the mid 1990s. The
Commission’s immigration reform recommendations were welcomed by President
Clinton and submitted to Congress, but have largely been ignored since then.
Conditions for America’s poorest workers have continued to deteriorate because
of both illegal and legal immigration. Reform of the immigration system to
assure that it does not harm Americans and instead contributes to a stronger
more equitable society is long overdue. The reforms that are needed include
ending family-based chain migration and unskilled immigration, ending the job
competition for America’s most vulnerable citizens by curtailing illegal
immigration and unskilled legal immigration, and holding employers accountable
for hiring illegal workers.
The U.S. has a responsibility to protect the economic interests of all of its
citizens, yet the immigration system, which adds hundreds of thousands to the
labor force each year, is bringing in workers faster than jobs are being
created. Moreover, only a small portion of admissions are based on skills or
educational criteria, creating an enormous glut of low-skilled workers who
struggle to rise above poverty. In 1995, the U.S. Commission on Immigration
Reform recommended curtailing family-based immigration and replacing the “failed
and expensive regulatory system [for skill-based immigration] with one that is
market-driven.” Along these lines, the Commission recommended that, “it is not
in the national interest to admit unskilled workers” because “the U.S. economy
is showing difficulty in absorbing disadvantaged workers.” Fifteen years later,
U.S. politicians continue to ignore these recommendations, bowing to corporate
demands for unskilled labor rather than taking a realistic look at immigration’s
effect on poverty and the American worker.
Current calls for “comprehensive immigration reform” are nothing short of a
push for a massive amnesty that would give permanent status to millions of
illegal aliens who are not needed in the workforce, and it would reward
unscrupulous employers who profited from hiring illegal workers, providing them
with a legal low-wage workforce that would continue to have a negative impact on
native workers. The border is not secured and there is much opposition to the
mandatory use of E-Verify and interior enforcement. Those who argue against
enforcement are not going to decide overnight to support these measures, and
politicians have long ago proven that their promise to enforce immigration laws
after granting amnesty are not to be believed.
This report contains the following findings:
- In 2009, less than 6 percent of legal immigrants were admitted because they
possessed skills deemed essential to the U.S. economy.
- Studies that find minimal or no negative effects on native workers from
low-skill immigration are based upon flawed assumptions and skewed economic
models, not upon observations of actual labor market conditions.
- There is no such thing as an “immigrant job.” The reality is that immigrants
and natives compete for the same jobs and native workers are increasingly at a
disadvantage because employers have access to a steady supply of low-wage
foreign workers.
- Low-skilled immigrants are more likely than their native-born counterparts
to live in poverty, lack health insurance, and to utilize welfare programs.
Immigrants and their children made up 32 percent of those in the United States
without health insurance in 2009.
- Research done by the Center for American Progress has found that reducing
the illegal alien population in the United States by one-third would raise the
income of unskilled workers by $400 a year.
- Defenders of illegal immigration often tout the findings of the so-called
Perryman Report to argue that illegal aliens are responsible for job creation in
the United States; yet, if one accepts the Perryman findings as true, that would
mean that only one job is created in the United States for every three illegal
workers in the workforce.
- It is true that if the illegal alien population decreased the overall number
of jobs in the U.S. would be reduced, but there would be many more jobs
available to native workers — jobs that paid higher wages and offered better
working conditions.
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The
Truth About Employment-Based Immigration Although big business likes to
claim that our present high level of immigration is necessary for its survival
and the robustness of our economy, the fact is that only a small fraction of
today's million plus new green cards issued annually go to highly-skilled
workers. |
more
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