WP: Study Finds Immigrants Don't Hurt U.S. Jobs

[kskiska]

Pew Finds No Link To Unemployment

High levels of immigration in the past 15 years do not appear to have hurt employment opportunities for American workers, according to a new report.

The Pew Hispanic Center analyzed immigration state by state using U.S. Census data, evaluating it against unemployment levels. No clear correlation between the two could be found.

Other factors, such as economic growth, have likely played a larger role in influencing the American job market, said Rakesh Kochhar, principal author of the report and an economist at the Pew Hispanic Center in the District.

(snip)

Immigration policy is a central issue in this fall's congressional elections. The report's findings appear to refute the idea -- often voiced by supporters of stricter immigration laws -- that foreign workers depress wages and take jobs from American workers, especially those with less education and fewer skills.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/10/AR2006081001711.html

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. I'm Aghast! ***gasp*** I'm shocked, I tell you! Shocked!!!

NOT

Glad more money was spent on something that had already been analyzed :sarcasm:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. ? how is that possible?

The jobs that illegals are doing wouldn't exist?

"We are simply looking for a pattern across 50 states, and we did not find one," Kochhar said. "We cannot say with certainty that growth in the foreign population has hurt or helped American jobs."

but they say it doesn't hurt employment? :shrug:

I shouldn't believe my own experience?

The jobs that I did 10 years ago, are now paying AT LEAST a dollar less an hour, and they are employing illegals now, then we were 90% Americans.

[Stardust]

7. That report is full of crap. I have several friends who can't even

apply for certain jobs (construction-related) because the labor force is saturated with those willing to work for less. And the job centers don't even take your name down if you're white.

One aspect of the immigration argument I don't quite buy: How are these guys able to live on so much less? Their rent isn't cheaper and there are regs against too many residents in most apartments. Groceries aren't any cheaper for them, nor is gasoline. I just don't get it.

[transeo]

9. Isn't that the employer's fault for hiring the immigrants?

How is it the immigrants' fault that employers are greedy like that? The problem is not the immigrants, it's the employers who hire them. If they'd stop hiring the situation would be solved.

[Lindacooks]

11. They live on less because there are usually many people living

in one house or apartment, perhaps despite the regulations. They have very extended families and don't buy into the 'one house, one family' American status quo.

[genieroze]

12. They live 10 to 20 to a house. I know, about a third of my neighbors are

Mexican. They also car pool or ride bikes. There are so many Mexican businesses opening up and they only hire other Mexicans. Are they illegal, I don't know. There are many Indian places opening up but they only have family working for them. Many of them have multiple Mc Mansions and drive expensive cars. Most gas stations around me are owned by Arabs but they do hire people outside their family or ethnicity. The one place was bought by an illegal who used to work for this Italian place and when they gave amnesty he bought the place and turned it into a Mexican restaurant with only one non immigrant working for him. They delivery kid who can speak english. He's a nice guy though and a good businessman.

[Bridget Burke]

13. Sue the job centers for racial discrimination....

Or have your Union do it.

[RagingInMiami]

17. I don't think they're so hung up on materialism as Americans are

Instead of keeping up with the Jones, they're just trying to keep up with Jose.

[EFerrari]

19. A lot of things actually cost more for them because the basics

are all more expensive in poorer neighborhoods AND undocumented workers have to avoid detection at all costs so it's pretty easy to rip them off. What are they going to do, call the police?

The answer to your question is, they don't live very well on those wages.

[1932]

3. It should be obvious from the fact that if increasing population were bad

for workers, then America would be much worse for workers with a populaion of 300,000,000 than it was decades ago with a population of 10,000,000.

Any time you add a person to the population, whether an immigrant or America born, so long as that person can work and be productive, it's going to be a long time before that person isn't making a positive contribution for himself as well as for his neighbors.

The real things hurting working people have nothing to do with immigration and everything to do with the afwul policies Republicans persue, like destroying public education and healthcare, destoying unions, and driving down wages by increasing misery for every working person.

[Mountainman]

4. Hey! We have to hide this. It doesn't support the xenophobes.

One more myth bites the dust?

[Lars39]

5. K&R and bookmarking.

[w4rma]

6. The problem is *illegal* immigrants. (nt)

[Gormy Cuss]

8. The Pew study does not address the effect on wages.

The reporter appears to be in error on that claim.

The study is limited to labor force participation rates and employment and unemployment rates and is for all workers aggregated to the state level. Assessment of wages was not part of the study as far as I can tell. I haven't had time to read the full report yet. This is from a reputable research center and the research was based on accepted data sources (decennial censuses, CPS, and ACS.)

More from the executive summary:

An analysis of the relationship between growth in the foreign-born population and employment outcomes of native-born workers revealed wide variations and no
consistent pattern across the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Nearly 25% of native-born workers lived in states where rapid growth in the foreign-born
population between 1990 and 2000 was associated with favorable outcomes for the native born in 2000.

Only 15% of native-born workers resided in states where rapid growth in the foreign-born population was associated with negative outcomes for the native born.

The remaining 60% of native-born workers lived in states where the growth in the foreign-born population was below average, but those native workers did not consistently experience favorable employment outcomes.

Similar results emerged from the analysis for the 2000 to 2004 time period. The size of the foreign-born workforce is also unrelated to the employment prospects for native workers. The relative youth and low levels of education among foreign workers appear to have no bearing on the employment
outcomes of native workers of similar schooling and age.

The author does caution in his final chapter that the gross level of aggregation may suppress impacts on the native-born workforce that might be apparent at a metropolitan level.

Others quoted in the WaPo article raised valid questions for further research.

[FILAM23]

10. Does this study break down legal and illegal immigration?

If it does not then I call BS on the study.
Because illegals are willing to work for lower
wages then what used to be paid it sure hurts the
job market for non illegals.

[Megahurtz]

14. That's SUCH Bullshit!

Of course illegal immigrants hurt U.S. jobs!
They accept less pay, so down goes the wage and the employers won't hire
U.S. Citizens at that low of a wage, and most U.S. Citizens won't,
and can't work for that low of a wage!
What a bullshit study probably sponsered by the big Corporate Fat-Cats!:argh:

[MaraJade]

18. It's called "occupation collapse. . ."

You can find a classic example of this in the meat packing industry.

When most of the workers were Americans and unionized, the average wage was about $19.00
(with benefits). Now that most of the workers are illegals, not only have worker safety
laws been generally thrown out, but most of the workers make about $7.00 per hour and get
no health or other benefits. Native born or Naturalized citizens will not work for that,
nor will they (Properly) accept the poor working conditions and lack of benefits.

This is the problem with illegals working here. Bosses refuse to pay better wages or provide
better working conditions to anyone when there are people willing to work for any wage (no matter
how small) and under any conditions (no matter how unsafe). If you cannot or will not accept
the current conditions, you are told to take a walk.

[OregonDem]

15. One's origin should not entitle them to a job...

besides isn't that just as wrong as deciding who gets the job based on religion, sex, sexual orientation or race.

Just because something is illegal doesn't mean that something is bad. To me the problem lies with the immigration laws them self because they prevent hard working and otherwise law abiding people from coming here.

The right wing thinks that to be an American you have to be white, conservative, english speaking and christian. The right wingers also think America is a superior to other nations and that it will remain so as long as a conservative government keeps out furiegners who have "inferior traits" (non-white, non-christian, a different language and culture)and by using government indoctrination (such as schools preaching Christianity) or what they call assimilation (kinda like the borg). This is nothing more than Nationalism which is the basis of right wing and fascist philosophy. After all the Final Solution was nothing more than an attempt to purge Germany of a people who were non-caucasian(they are semitic), non-christian, had a "different" culture and tended to be left of center, just so that they could have their right-wing-whites-only-christian nation.

While conservatives believe in Nationalism they hate its opposite, multiculturalism which is the liberal idea that different races and cultures can live together in peace and prosperity within a country .

[BlueStater]

16. Why does this study call them "immigrants"?

They're ILLEGAL immigrants.

Geez, this kind of wordplay propaganda just bugs the crap out of me.

[Euphen]

20. Maybe because not all immigrants are illegal. nt

[jerry611]

21. Who is funding this study?

I've seen with my own two eyes foreign labor hurting American jobs.

This study is full of shit.