Scholars disagree on effects of immigration

By: Michelle SiberyOver the years, a considerable number of studies have focused on whether immigrants take job opportunities from native workers. Some researchers, such as George J. Borjas, an economics and social policy professor at Harvard University, argue that immigration is detrimental to the U.S. economy, especially for unskilled workers. Others, such as David Card, an economics professor at University of California at Berkeley, maintain that the negative effect of immigration on unskilled workers is negligible. Below are summary examples of academic arguments.

"The Impact of the Mariel Boatlift on the Miami Labor Market"

Author: David Card

Year: 1990

The study examined how an increase in immigration affected Miami's lowskilled workforce when more than 125,000 Cubans emigrated from the Port of Mariel, Cuba, to Miami in 1980. With about half of these Mariel immigrants remaining in the area, Miami's economy amassed approximately 45,000 new workers-a 7 percent increase in its labor force. Still, Card concluded that "the Mariel influx appears to have had virtually no effect on the wages or unemployment rates of less-skilled non-Cuban workers."

But Miami's unemployment rate rose from 5 percent in April 1980 to about 7 percent the following July, and some attributed this increase to the arrival of Mariel immigrants. Card, however, studied labor markets in four comparable cities-Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston and Tampa-St. Petersburg-and found that they followed a similar pattern to that of Miami. To Card, the findings suggest that Miami's economy was able to absorb the increase in immigration fairly rapidly with little damage.

Card also noted that a constant flow of immigrants to Miami during the 20 years leading up to the Mariel Boatlift prepared it for an influx of workers who spoke little English. The city also had a strong industrial economy to absorb these low-skilled workers.

"Immigration and African-American Employment Opportunities: The Response of Wages, Employment, and Incarceration to Labor Supply Shocks"

Authors: George J. Borjas, Jeffrey Grogger and Gordon H. Hanson

Year: 2006

Using census data from 1960 to 2000, the authors reached what they acknowledge might be a controversial conclusion: that immigration is strongly linked to higher unemployment and incarceration rates among African- American men between 18 and 64.

The study showed that a 10 percent "immigrant-induced" increase in the supply of one skill group means a decrease in the employment rate by 2.4 percentage points and a spike in the incarceration rate by almost a full percentage point for black men.

The authors theorize that the demand for labor decreases with an increase in immigration, and that has forced some natives out of the labor market into crime. They also say it is "reasonable to assume" that natives are more likely to engage in illegal activities than immigrants, who could face deportation as well as incarceration.

The researchers acknowledge that, without immigration, unemployment and incarceration rates for African Americans would still have risen in the studied time period. But they concluded that, even after adjusting for other factors, immigration still had a "numerically important" effect on these figures.

"The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration"

Author: National Research Council

Year: 1997

At the request of a Congressionally appointed Commission on Immigration Reform, the National Research Council, a nonprofit group of scholars dedicated to advising the federal government on scientific issues, assembled a team of experts to study the effects of immigration. These experts concluded that, overall, immigration betters the American economy.

Their study found that immigration expands the pool of available workers, particularly in low-wage, low-skilled job categories, and this leads to higher production and profit. This is a boon for the highly skilled natives, who are needed to oversee the growth in workers and production; a rise in demand for their skills encourages a rise in wages.

Those who compete with immigrants for the low-level jobs, meanwhile, are seeing their wages go down. But the study found that the impact on the wages is "small-possibly reducing them by only 1 or 2 percent."