ECONOMICS OF IMMIGRATION
Compiled by Janice L. Mathis, Esq., Vice President
Citizenship Education Fund
Immigration Issues Forum
Sponsored by
The Honorable Yvette Clark, 11th District of New York
Annual Legislative Conference
Legislative Black Caucus Foundation
Washington, D.C., September 17, 2010

Introduction
I would like to express appreciation to Congresswoman Clark, her chief of staff, Shelley Davis, and her entire staff for presenting an opportunity for discussion of this important issue.  If we are to achieve comprehensive immigration reform, it will require that American voters reach a consensus that current immigration policy is flawed and in need of systemic change.  Gaps in information and perceptions currently exist that make that consensus harder to achieve.

1. Data Does Not Support Economic Harm Caused by Immigration

There is ample data that African American unemployment is not being fueled by immigration.  Two reports prepared for the Immigration Policy Center by the consulting firm Rob Paral & Associates debunk the myth propagated by anti-immigration activists that immigrants fill U.S. jobs only at the expense of unemployed native-born workers. The reports use data from the Census Bureau to demonstrate that there is no discernible relationship between the number of recent immigrants in a particular locale and the unemployment rate among native-born whites, blacks, Latinos, or Asians.  According to the report, this holds true even now, at a time of economic recession and high unemployment.

These reports are the first two installments of a three-part series, Untying the Knot , which seeks to unravel the complex and frequently misrepresented relationship between immigration and unemployment. The first report, “The Unemployment and Immigration Disconnect,” analyzes the relationship (or lack thereof) between recent immigration and the general unemployment rate in different regions, states, and counties. The report finds that areas with high unemployment rates do not necessarily have large numbers of recent immigrants. For instance, recent immigrants are 7.3% of the population in New Jersey and only 0.8% of the population in Maine, yet unemployment rates are nearly identical in both states. On average, counties with lower unemployment rates have larger populations of recent immigrants.

          The second report, “Immigration and Native-Born Unemployment Across Racial/Ethnic Groups,” analyzes the relationship between recent immigration and unemployment among native-born whites, blacks, Latinos, and Asians in different states and metropolitan areas. According to the report, the unemployment rate among African Americans is, on average, lower in states and metropolitan areas with the most recent immigrants in the labor force. For example, recent immigrants are 17% of the labor force in Miami and only 3% of the labor force in Cleveland, yet the unemployment rate of native-born blacks in Cleveland is double that of Miami. Rob Paral, Principal of Rob Paral & Associates, points out:
“On the question of race we find that there’s just no connection between immigration and unemployment. The culprit when it comes to unemployment is not immigration.”

Among serious immigration researchers, these findings should come as little surprise. Immigrants go where the jobs are, and the causes of unemployment among the native-born are far too complicated to be reduced to some simple-minded “immigrant vs. native” arithmetic. In addition, employment is not a zero-sum game in which workers compete for some fixed number of jobs. In the real world, workers don’t just fill jobs, but also buy homes and consumer goods, save and invest money, start businesses, and pay taxes-all of which increase the demand for labor. During a press call hosted by IPC, Dan Siciliano, Executive Director of the Program in Law, Economics, and Business at Stanford Law School, explains:
“The level of unemployment in the U.S. is painful, scary and difficult-so we shouldn’t belittle it. However, the very notion that immigration has anything to do with unemployment does just that. It belittles the challenge of unemployment.”  Although it might be politically expedient in some circles to blame immigrants for unemployment, it is-quite simply-wrong.

Champions of strict immigration reform, be warned: there may be an economic consequence to tightening America's borders.   Immigration is actually good for employment, wages and productivity, according to a new study from the San Francisco Fed.  States that have had a large influx of immigrants tended to produce more, hire more and pay workers more than states that have few new foreign-born workers, the study shows. For every one percent increase in employment from immigration, the study finds, a state will see a .4 to .5 percent increase in income per worker.
In conducting the study, Giovanni Peri, an associate professor at University of California, Davis, compared output per worker and employment in states that have had large immigrant inflows with data from states that have few immigrant inflows. Peri found no evidence that immigrants "crowd-out" employment for American citizens. Peri concludes that immigration boosted states' output, income and employment because the economies "[absorbed] immigrants by expanding job opportunities rather than by displacing workers born in the United States." Further, the results of the study support the theory that U.S.-born workers and immigrants tend to take different occupations, says Peri.  
The study uses a hypothetical illustration to explain:
"As young immigrants with low schooling levels take manually intensive construction jobs, the construction companies that employ them have opportunities to expand. This increases the demand for construction supervisors, coordinators, designers, and so on. Those are occupations with greater communication intensity and are typically staffed by U.S.-born workers who have moved away from manual construction jobs. This complementary task specialization typically pushes U.S.-born workers toward better-paying jobs, enhances the efficiency of production, and creates jobs."
Check out a brief of the study at the NBER's website. (The full study is available for purchase.)

NBER Working Paper No. 15507
Issued in November 2009
NBER Program(s):   ITI   LS   PR
An NBER digest for this paper is available.

Using the large variation in the inflow of immigrants across US states we analyze the impact of immigration on state employment, average hours worked, physical capital accumulation and, most importantly, total factor productivity and its skill bias. We use the location of a state relative to the Mexican border and to the main ports of entry, as well as the existence of communities of immigrants before 1960, as instruments. We find no evidence that immigrants crowded-out employment and hours worked by natives. At the same time we find robust evidence that they increased total factor productivity, on the one hand, while they decreased capital intensity and the skill-bias of production technologies, on the other. These results are robust to controlling for several other determinants of productivity that may vary with geography such as R&D spending, computer adoption, international competition in the form of exports and sector composition. Our results suggest that immigrants promoted efficient task specialization, thus increasing TFP and, at the same time, promoted the adoption of unskilled-biased technology as the theory of directed technologial change would predict. Combining these effects, an increase in employment in a US state of 1% due to immigrants produced an increase in income per worker of 0.5% in that state.

B.        The Fear is Real
Despite the empirical evidence to the contrary, some blacks, especially men between the ages of 20 and 50 without post-secondary education, harbor fears that that undocumented immigrants negatively affect their ability to work and care for their families.  An article published in the New York Times in May, 2006 indicates a growing unease for some blacks on immigration.  In another article, Darryl Fears, writing on April 8, 2006 in the Washington Post reported on the collision between African Americans’ personal and policy choices.  A Gallup Poll indicates that Americans think immigrants take jobs Americans don’t want, but also think immigrants cost too much in terms of government services and benefits.

C.        Solutions and Recommendations
1.  Educate the public about the myths and realities of the economics of immigration, unemployment and job competition.
2.  Address the root causes of employment insecurity
a.  lack of educational opportunity
b.  criminal justice system that metes out lifetime punishment for ex-offenders in terms of criminal history and employability
3.  Attempt meaningful policy choices, such as Georgia’s Fatherhood Initiative that offers alternatives to incarceration for failure to pay child support for parents who parent, study and search for work
4.  Admit that perceptions and facts are often at odds and resist glossing over or covering up real tensions between ethnic groups
5.  Emphasize potential power inherent in native/immigrant alliances and understanding.

APPENDIX A
WASHINGTON, May 3 — In their demonstrations across the country, some Hispanic immigrants have compared the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s struggle to their own, singing "We Shall Overcome" and declaring a new civil rights movement to win citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.
Civil rights stalwarts like the Rev. Jesse Jackson; Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia; Julian Bond and the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery have hailed the recent protests as the natural progression of their movement in the 1960's.
But despite some sympathy for the nation's illegal immigrants, many black professionals, academics and blue-collar workers feel increasingly uneasy as they watch Hispanics flex their political muscle while assuming the mantle of a seminal black struggle for justice.
Some blacks bristle at the comparison between the civil rights movement and the immigrant demonstrations, pointing out that black protesters in the 1960's were American citizens and had endured centuries of enslavement, rapes, lynchings and discrimination before they started marching.
Others worry about the plight of low-skilled black workers, who sometimes compete with immigrants for entry-level jobs.
And some fear the unfinished business of the civil rights movement will fall to the wayside as America turns its attention to a newly energized Hispanic minority with growing political and economic clout.

"All of this has made me start thinking, 'What's going to happen to African-Americans?' " said Brendon L. Laster, 32, a black fund-raiser at Howard University here, who has been watching the marches. "What's going to happen to our unfinished agenda?"
Mr. Laster is dapper and cosmopolitan, a part-time professor and Democratic activist who drinks and dines with a wide circle of black, white and Hispanic friends. He said he marveled at first as the images of cheering, flag-waving immigrants flickered across his television screen. But as some demonstrators proclaimed a new civil rights movement, he grew uncomfortable.
He says that immigrant protesters who claim the legacy of Dr. King and Rosa Parks are going too far. And he has begun to worry about the impact that the emerging immigrant activism will have on black Americans, many of whom still face poverty, high rates of unemployment and discrimination in the workplace.

"I think what they were able to do, the level of organization they were able to pull off, that was phenomenal," said Mr. Laster, who is also a part-time sociology professor at a community college in Baltimore. "But I do think their struggle is, in fundamental ways, very different from ours. We didn't chose to come here; we came here as slaves. And we were denied, even though we were legal citizens, our basic rights."
"There are still a lot of unresolved issues from the civil rights era," he said. "Perhaps we're going to be pushed to the back burner."
This painful debate is bubbling up in church halls and classrooms, on call-in radio programs and across dining room tables. Some blacks prefer to discuss the issue privately for fear of alienating their Hispanic allies. But others are publicly airing their misgivings, saying they are too worried to stay silent.

"We will have no power, no clout," warned Linda Carter-Lewis, 62, a human resources manager and the branch president of the N.A.A.C.P. in Des Moines. "That's where I see this immigrant movement going. Even though so many thousands and thousands of them have no legal status and no right to vote right now, that day is coming."
Immigrant leaders defend their use of civil rights language, saying strong parallels exist between the two struggles. And they argue that their movement will ultimately become a powerful vehicle to fight for the rights of all American workers, regardless of national origin.
"African-Americans during the civil rights movement were in search of the American dream and that's what our movement is trying to achieve for our community," said Jaime Contreras, president of the National Capital Immigration Coalition, which organized the April 10 demonstration that drew tens of thousands of people to Washington.

"We face the same issues even if we speak different languages," said Mr. Contreras, who is from El Salvador and listens to Dr. King's speeches for inspiration.
Mr. Jackson, who addressed the immigrant rally on Monday in New York, echoed those views. He noted that Dr. King, at the end of his life, focused on improving economic conditions for all Americans, regardless of race. And he said the similarities between African-Americans and illegal immigrants were too powerful to ignore.
"We too were denied citizenship," Mr. Jackson said. "We too were undocumented workers working without wages, without benefits, without the vote. "We should feel honored that other people are using tactics and strategies from our struggle. We shouldn't say they're stealing from us. They're learning from us."
Mr. Jackson said corporate employers were fueling the tensions between blacks and immigrants by refusing to pay a living wage to all workers. John Campbell, a black steel worker and labor activist from Iowa, agreed.
"This is a class issue," said Mr. Campbell, who has been disheartened by black critics of the immigrant marches. "We need to join forces. We can't improve our lot in life as African-Americans by suppressing the rights of anyone else."
But blacks and immigrants have long had a history of uneasy relations in the United States.
W.E.B. DuBois, a founder of the N.A.A.C.P., and other prominent black leaders worried that immigrants would displace blacks in the workplace. Ronald Walters, director of the African-American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland, said blacks cheered when the government restricted Asian immigration to the United States after World War I. And many Europeans who came to this country discriminated against blacks.
Blacks and Hispanics have also been allies. In the 1960's, Dr. King and Cesar Chavez, the Mexican-American farm labor leader, corresponded with each other. And when Mr. Chavez was jailed, Dr. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, visited him in jail, Mr. Walters said. In recent years, blacks and Hispanics have been influential partners in the Democratic Party.
A recent poll conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center captured the ambivalence among blacks over immigration. Nearly 80 percent said immigrants from Latin American work very hard and have strong family values.
But nearly twice as many blacks as whites said that they or a family member had lost a job, or not gotten a job, because an employer hired an immigrant worker. Blacks were also more likely than whites to feel that immigrants take jobs away from American citizens.
Mr. Walters said he understood those conflicting emotions, saying he feels torn himself because of his concerns about the competition between immigrants and low-skilled black men for jobs. In 2004, 72 percent of black male high school dropouts in their 20's were jobless, compared with 34 percent of white and 19 percent of Hispanic dropouts.
"I applaud them moving out of the shadows and into the light because of the human rights issues involved," Mr. Walters said of illegal immigrants. "I've given my entire life to issues of social justice as an activist and an academic. In that sense, I'm with them.
"But they also represent a powerful ingredient to the perpetuation of our struggle," he said. "We have a problem where half of black males are unemployed in several cities. I can't ignore that and simply be my old progressive self and say it's not an issue. It is an issue."

            APPENDIX B
Job Issue Muddles Immigration Views
Blacks' Personal, Policy Stances Collide
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 8, 2006

Around sunrise on a crystal-blue morning, John Henry Ford and a knot of other day laborers waited for work on a scruffy Washington street corner. He was a rare sight among the men waiting anxiously outside a paint store chatting away in Spanish: a black handyman in a labor pool dominated by undocumented Latino workers.

"They came over here, in a sense, to replace us," Ford said. But he had no hard feelings. "Me as a black man around Latinos, I get along with them better than some in my own culture."
During the noisy debate over illegal immigration arguments about "fairness" and "compassion" have filled the air. But for low-income, low-skilled people such as Ford -- a disproportionate number of them black -- another idea, "competition," confronts them nearly every day. Yet despite seeing themselves as being increasingly displaced by migrants from Mexico and Central America, many black people like Ford -- and the leaders who claim to represent them -- tend to have a favorable view of immigrants.

In a recent poll by the Pew Research Center and the Pew Hispanic Center, nearly a quarter of black respondents said they had personally lost a job to an immigrant or knew someone who had. Less than a fifth of white respondents said that.
But when asked if legal immigration should be cut back, the tables turned. Black people were less likely to say yes than white people -- 34 percent, compared with 44 percent. On another question -- whether immigrants are a burden -- two-thirds of both groups answered yes.
"We're not anti-immigrant," Lita Herron, a black activist, said at a recent roundtable discussion on immigration in Los Angeles. "The problem is, it puts us at odds with people who are trying to do the same thing we're trying to do: make a living, put a roof over our heads."

The issues of whether immigrants are crowding out black people in the labor market or driving down the wages among low-skilled workers are hotly debated. Some economists, including George Borjas of Harvard University, say they are. "Low-skill . . . illegal immigration has the biggest negative impact on the wage of low-skill workers," said Borjas, whose research is often cited by those seeking to restrict immigration. "A disproportionate number of these low-skill workers happen to be minorities: blacks, Hispanics and earlier immigrant arrivals."

Some other economists say it is difficult to separate the impact of immigrants on black employment prospects from other issues such as discrimination and the large percentage of low-skilled, poorly educated black men who have criminal records.
Whatever the truth, it is clear that many black people believe strongly that they are losing jobs, neighborhoods and status to the estimated 11 million or more undocumented workers who are in the country.

In places where black Americans mix with immigrants -- Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Miami -- there is a measurable tension. Traditionally black neighborhoods now belong to Latinos. Black parents have complained about school PTA meetings being conducted entirely in Spanish. Over the past decade, black and Latino prison inmates have battled for supremacy in riots that often turn deadly.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, a black journalist, said he recently got an earful when he wrote a series of stories that favored reform. "I got so many e-mails and calls from people saying, 'How dare you take a position in support of immigration reform? They're taking our jobs.' That's at the heart of why so many African Americans are so fearful," he said. "It's not the schools, it's not the jails. It comes down to the economics and the jobs. I hear over and over, 'They're taking all the jobs.' "
Such feelings are seldom voiced by black politicians and civil rights leaders, who tend to emphasize working with Latino groups to form a united front for civil rights. Last week, for example, the NAACP issued a news release calling on Congress to approve a comprehensive immigration reform package that allows immigrants to legally work and become citizens, mirroring calls by the National Council of La Raza and the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland professor of political science, said black civil rights groups might be doing their communities a disservice. Like President Bush, he said, they are wrong in saying that immigrants are taking low-skill jobs that Americans do not want. He believes Americans reject low wages that desperate immigrants workers keep driving down.
In the Washington area, where Central American immigration has thoroughly changed the demographic landscape, black opinions on immigration are more harsh, said Scott Keeter, director of survey research for the Pew Research Center.

"Blacks here have more negative impressions than blacks nationally," he said. "But even at that, they are not overwhelmingly negative toward immigrants by any means."
The Pew survey of 2,000 was taken between Feb. 8 and March 7. Its sample of black respondents was much smaller than the 900 African Americans who answered questions on immigration for a 1999 survey conducted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a black think tank.
Nearly half of black respondents in the Joint Center survey felt illegal immigration was a major problem, and more than half -- 52 percent -- said it had led to the loss of too many lower paying jobs. Fifty-one percent said the country could not afford more illegal immigrants.
As in the Pew poll, black people were of two minds. Exactly half told the Joint Center that they thought the increasing diversity made America a better place. Which is pretty much what A.D. Thomas said as he stood in line for a job with dozens of Latino workers at 15th and P streets NW.
"Years ago, there weren't any Hispanics here," Thomas said. "But everybody got to make a living, to do the best they can." He acknowledged that Latino cliques bypass black handymen. But he took the discrimination in stride, saying they prefer "working with people they're more comfortable with."
Latinos, he said, "have the reputation, true or false, of being so-called better workers." Nearby, the third and last black man in the labor pool, who identified himself only as Damon, for fear that his comments would cost him work, scoffed at that.
"When customers come here, they'll pick a Spanish guy over a black guy in a minute," Damon said.
Staff writer Sonya Geis contributed to this report.

APPENDIX C

July 10, 2006

Hispanics, Whites, Blacks Not in Complete Agreement on Illegal Immigration

Whites, blacks think illegals cost taxpayers too much; Hispanics disagree

by Jeffrey M. Jones
GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's annual poll on Minority Rights and Relations finds that non-Hispanic whites, blacks, and Hispanics share many views about illegal immigrants and what should be done about them, but they diverge on certain issues. All three groups believe illegal immigrants take low-paying jobs Americans don't want and say the government should allow illegal immigrants currently in the United States a path to citizenship. However, Hispanics believe illegal immigrants eventually become productive citizens who pay their fair share of taxes, while whites and blacks think illegal immigrants cost the taxpayers too much with their use of government services. Hispanics are also much more likely than whites or blacks to express concern that legislation Congress is considering will go too far in increasing security along the United States' border with Mexico.
These results are taken from Gallup's June 8-25 poll, which included oversamples of 500 blacks and 506 Hispanics, with interviews conducted in both English and Spanish.
Illegal Immigrants' Impact on U. S. Society
With so much attention focused on illegal immigration this year, there has been increased discussion of whether it is a net plus or a net minus for the United States. On the one hand, some argue a steady wave of illegal immigration puts increased pressure on government services such as border patrols, law enforcement, and public services. On the other hand, some argue it has benefits for the U.S. economy because many illegal immigrants take low-paying jobs that otherwise might go unfilled. The poll shows Americans recognize both the pluses and the minuses of illegal immigration.
Overall, Americans are more than twice as likely to believe that illegal immigrants "cost the taxpayers too much by using government services like public education and medical services" rather than becoming "productive citizens" in the long run who "pay their fair share of taxes." However, there is not consensus on this among all Americans -- Hispanics disagree with whites and blacks. By a 65% to 31% margin, Hispanics say illegal immigrants eventually become productive citizens rather than being a drain on the system. Blacks (56%) and especially whites (74%) tend to view illegal immigrants as a burden on taxpayers.

There is widespread agreement as to whether illegal immigrants are taking jobs from American workers or taking jobs Americans don't want. Roughly three-quarters of Americans, including majorities of blacks, Hispanics, and whites, believe that illegal immigrants mostly take low-paying jobs Americans don't want. Hispanics are most likely to hold this view (81%), but at least two in three whites (74%) and blacks (67%) agree.

The Illegal Immigration Issue
Illegal immigration is clearly a concern for Americans -- it ranks second behind the war in Iraq in Americans' conception of the most important problem facing the country today. In the Minority Rights and Relations poll, 17% of Americans mentioned immigration as the top problem in response to this open-ended question. Notably, it is a much greater concern for whites (19%) and Hispanics (21%) than for blacks (6%).
Both houses of Congress have passed legislation to deal with the issue of illegal immigration, but it is unclear if a law will be signed this year because the bills have different priorities. The Senate bill has provisions to increase border security but also would provide a way for illegal immigrants living in the United States to become citizens if they meet certain requirements. The House bill addresses only security along U.S. borders. While many House members support attempts to deal with the status of illegal immigrants, they argue that the border security problem should be resolved first. President Bush believes new immigration laws should tackle both issues.
The poll finds most Americans favor a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants as the way to address the status of illegal immigrants living in the United States. Two in three Americans say the United States should "allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States and become U.S. citizens, but only if they meet certain requirements over a period of time." The remainder of the public divides about evenly between allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the United States to work for a limited amount of time (17%) and "deporting all illegal immigrants back to their home country" (16%).
Hispanics (86%) overwhelmingly support the path to citizenship approach, while a lesser majority of whites (63%) and blacks (69%) do so.

Given the disagreement in Washington on how to proceed on the issue, the poll asked Americans whether they were more concerned that new immigration laws would go too far or not far enough to increase security on the U.S.-Mexican border and, separately, to develop a plan to deal with illegal immigrants living in the United States.
In general, Americans are more concerned that the new laws will not go far enough to adequately address either issue.
As you may know, Congress is considering new laws to deal with the issue of illegal immigration. What concerns you more -- that the new laws will go too far -- or will not go far enough -- to [ITEMS ROTATED]?
A. Increase security along the U.S. border with Mexico

B. Develop a plan to deal with the large number of illegal immigrants who are already living in the U.S.

On the matter of border security, Hispanics' views diverge from those of whites and blacks. Fifty percent of Hispanics are more concerned the new laws will go too far to increase border security, while 43% are more concerned they will not go far enough. Two in three whites and blacks are more concerned the laws will not go far enough to increase security.

A majority of all three racial and ethnic groups are concerned the new laws will not adequately develop a plan to deal with illegal immigrants residing in the United States. Whites are most likely to express this concern, while blacks and especially Hispanics are less likely to do so.

Survey Methods
These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 2,032 adults, including oversamples of 500 blacks and 506 Hispanics, aged 18 years and older, conducted June 8-25, 2006. The total sample is weighted so that it reflects the national adult population. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±6 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
For results based on the sample of 500 blacks, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±7 percentage points.
For results based on the sample of 506 Hispanics, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±7 percentage points (167 out of the 506 interviews with Hispanics were conducted in Spanish).
For results based on the sample of 872 non-Hispanic whites, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±7 percentage points.
17. Which comes closest to your view about what government policy should be toward illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States? Should the government -- [ROTATED: deport all illegal immigrants back to their home country, allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States in order to work, but only for a limited amount of time, or allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States and become U.S. citizens, but only if they meet certain requirements over a period of time]?
FULL NATIONAL ADULT TREND