Immigration 6 Essay, Research Paper

The 1990s have brought the largest influx of immigrants into labor force of the

United States of any decade in this nation’s history. A panel of social science scholars

concluded their assessment of U.S. society with the observation that “America’s biggest

import is people” and determined that “at a time when attention is directed to the general

decline in American exceptionalism, American immigration continues to flow at a rate

unknown elsewhere in the world” [Oxford Analytica 1986, 20]. Unlike earlier mass

immigration periods to the United States the present day wave of immigration to the U.S.

show “no sign of imminent decline” [Bouvier 1991, 18]. “In today’s world setting,

international migration is a discretionary action that is regulated by the specific actions of

the governments of individual nation-states.” There is no international obligation for any

nation to allow others to enter or to work, in fact, most nations do not admit immigrants

for permanent settlement

Mass immigration has played a significant role in the economic history of the

United States, nevertheless the harsh fact is that what may be necessary and beneficial at

one time, may not be so at another. The demand for labor is being affected by

“restructuring forces stemming from the nature and pace of technological change; from

the stiff international competition the United States that now confronts for the first time

in its history; from major shifts in consumer spending away from goods toward services;

and from the substantial reduction

In the national defense expenditures brought about by the end of the Cold War in

the early 1990’s”. (vernon m. briggs,jr. and stephen moore. pg 35.) In looking toward the

future the twenty occupations projected to grow the fastest in the 1990s, half are related

to the growing computer and health fields. The shift to a service based economy is

leading to an upgrading of the skills and education required by the labor force. On the

other hand the occupations that require minimal skills and education have declined and

are presently forecasted to continue to do so. Immigration can be useful in the short run

as a means of providing qualified workers where shortages of qualified domestic workers

exist. But, the long-term objective should be that these jobs should go to citizens and

resident aliens. “The 1990 Census revealed that the percentage of foreign-born adults (25

years and over) who had less than a ninth grade education was 25 percent (compared to

only 10 percent for native-born adults) and whereas 23 percent of native-born adults did

not have a high school diploma, 42 percent of foreign-born adults did not. Immigration,

therefore, is a major contributor to the nation’s adult illiteracy problem. On the other

hand, both foreign-born adults and native-born adults had the same percentage of persons

who had a bachelor’s degree or higher (20.3 percent and 20.4 percent, respectively), but

with regard to those who had graduate degrees, foreign-born adults had a considerably

higher percentage than did the native-born, 3.8 percent versus 2.4 percent.( )” It is at both

ends of the U.S. labor force that immigration has its greatest impact at the bottom and at

the top of the economic ladder. “The overall unemployment rate of foreign-born workers

in 1994 was 9.2 percent, while the comparable national unemployment rate at the time

was 6.5 percent. The unemployment rate for foreign-born workers with less than a ninth

grade education in 1994 was 13 percent; for those with some high school but no diploma,

it was 15.2 percent. The comparable rates for native-born workers were 13.5 percent and

29.9 percent.” Consequently, the greatest labor market impact of immigration is in the

sector of the labor market that is already having the greatest difficulty finding

employment. “The 1990 Census also disclosed that 79.1 percent of the foreign-born

population (five years old and over) speak a language other than English (compared to

7.8 percent of the native-born) and that 47.0 percent of the foreign-born (five years and

over) reported that they do not speak English very well.( )” The ability to speak English

in an increasingly service-oriented economy has been definitively linked to the ability to

advance in the U.S. labor market of the post-1965 era [Chiswick 1992, 15]. Considering

the factors aforementioned “the incidence of poverty among families of the foreign-born

population in 1990 was 50 percent higher than that of native-born families or that 25

percent of the families with a foreign-born householder who entered the country since

1980 were living in poverty in 1990 ( ).” “Nor is it surprising to find that immigrant

families make greater use of welfare than do native-born families” [Borjas and Trejo

1991, 195- 211].

“Even when legitimate labor shortages exist, immigration should never be

allowed to dampen the two types of market pressures: those needed to encourage citizen

workers to invest in preparing for vocations that are expanding and those needed to

ensure that governmental bodies provide the human-resource-development programs

needed to prepare citizens for the new type of jobs that are emerging.” ( pg.44 ). We may

need to reconsider ” an immigration policy that annually encourages or tolerates the mass

entry of immigrants with only minimal regard to their human capital attributes or places

additional remedial burdens on an already underfunded and inadequate education and

training system. It is not only the actual effects of increased competition for jobs and

social services that are important, collectively we must consider the opportunity costs as

well when considering immigration and its effect on our economy.”(Pg,48)

The phrase “a melting nation of immigrants” is popularly used to describe the

people who settled the United States. Historian Oscar Handlin added to this statement by

stating that “once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I

discovered that the immigrants were American history” [Handlin 1951, 3]. ” The benefits

of immigration, however are manifold. Immigrants are highly entrepreneurial. Their rate

of business start-ups and self employment tend to be higher than that of United States

born citizens. Immigrants contribute to the global competitiveness of US corporations,

particularly in high technology industries. Perhaps the most important benefit is that

immigrants come to the United States with critically needed talents, energies that serve

as an engine for economic progress.”(pg 78). Economist Ellen Seghal of the US Bureau

of Labor Statistics did a study examining welfare usage in 1984 of several major federal

programs of immigrants who entered the United States before 1982. She found that “the

share of foreign born collecting public assistance including unemployment

compensation, Food Stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and AFDC was 12.8

percent. The percentage for US born was 13.9 percent.” (pg 93). “A study by the City of

New York’s Office of City Planning found that the public assistance rate was 7.7 percent

for immigrants and 13.3 percent for the population as a whole. Hispanic immigrants are

alleged to be especially heavy users of welfare services, but the research does not verify

this stereotype. A study done by the Urban Institute found the “annual welfare benefits

averaged $575 per California household, as opposed to $251, per Mexican immigrant

household.

Do immigrants compete with American workers for jobs? “There are almost

always economic losers under such competitions, even though the society as a whole is

almost always left wealthier. The pressure of competition is one of the engines of

economic growth under a capitalist economy.”(pg98). ” When immigrants come to the

United States, they immediately raise the demand for US goods and services (Greenwood

and McDowell 1986).” “They shop for food in US grocery stores; they move into

apartments or homes, as producers’ immigrants fill jobs, but as consumers they create

jobs”(pg106). Several studies have documented that the immigrants who come to the

United States tend to be more skilled, more highly educated and “generally more

economically successful than the average citizens in their home countries”. (pg142)

“Among Iranians who came to the United States in 1979, 57 percent were professional,

technical, or managerial workers. In Iran , only 6 percent of all the workforce falls into

those high skill categories. In that same year, 68 percent of the immigrants from India fell

into these high skilled categories compared to less than 5 percent among the entire Indian

workforce. Finally, 15 percent of the 6,000 Haitians who entered the United States in

1979 through normal immigration channels were professionals, administrators, or

managers compared to 1 percent for the Haitian workforce (Gibney 1990,372.)” The

children of immigrants also tend to reach exceptionally high levels of achievement as

adults, in earnings and professional skills.

“Economist Barry Chiswick has calculated that throughout this century, the

children of immigrants have had earnings that are on the average 10 percent above those

of comparably educated US born children (cited in McConnell 1988, 101 ).” Americans

are split on an issue that will likely remain on the forefront for some time to come. The

subtle nuances interwoven within the issue of immigration are facets that require answers

more akin to shades of gray than black and white. As we look toward the future and our

economic stability we can be sure the battle will be for the scarcest natural resource, that

of talent and brainpower.

Bibliography

Baumol, William J. “Sir John Versus the Hicksians, or Theorist Malgre Lui.” The Journal

of Economic Literature 19, no. 4 (December 1990): 1708-1715.

Becker, Gary S. “An Open Door for Immigrants–the Auction.” The Wall Street Journal,

14 October 1992, p. A-14.

Borjas, George J. “The Economics of Immigration.” The Journal of Economic Literature

23, no. 4 (December 1994): 1667-1717.

Borjas, George J., and Stephen J. Trejo. “Immigrant Participation in the Welfare System.”

Industrial and Labor Relations Review 44, no. 2 (January 1991): 195-211.

Bouvier, Leon. Peaceful Invasions: Immigration and Changing America. Washington,

D.C.: Center for Immigration Studies, 1991.

Briggs, Vernon M., Jr. “Non-Immigrant Labor Policy in the United States. ” Journal of

Economic Issues 17, no. 3 (September 1983): 609-630.

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