Immigration
Steven Camarota is the Research Director for the Center of Immigration Studies. He spoke before a panel, which provides quantitative support against amnesty for illegal aliens as well as looking at increasing immigration.
I highly recommend you listen to his testimony. It is about 19 minutes long, but
very, very informative. He does a very good job.
Steven Camarota, Research Director for the Center for Immigration Studies, discusses the guest workerprogram.
3/29/2006: WASHINGTON, DC: 45 min.
Terms:
Natives are referred to as U.S. born or naturalized citizens
Immigrants include both legal and illegal immigrants
- There are 65 million natives with a high school education
- 4 million are unemployed
- 19 million have left the job market (no longer looking, the gave up)
- The idea that there is no one there to fill a job is just plain wrong
- The idea that natives will not perform jobs is just plain wrong.
- Occupations with highest immigrant participation have 22 million natives in the same occupations.
- There are 14 million less educated natives in heavily immigrant occupations.
- If there were jobs that natives would not perform, then there would be few natives in these occupations.
- In the highest concentration of immigrant occupations there are 1.7 million natives unemployed.
- The Department of Labor and Commerce track 473 specific occupations to divide the economy.
- The number of immigrants counted represent 100% of legal and 90% of illegal workers.
- There was no majority occupation that immigrants do that natives do not. If there were, it would show up as 80% to 90% of an occupation being immigrant.
- There are 35 occupations where immigrants make up nearly 1/3 of the workers but these occupations represent just 7% of the total U.S. Workforce.
- These 35 occupations have 5 million natives employed.
- ½ the native born drop outs and 1/3 of the natives with only a high school education are in occupations that have 15% immigrants.
- Native workers face significant competition in Construction, Cab Drivers, Nannies, Maids and HouseKeepers where most are native workers.
- Those who hold the position that immigrants perform jobs that natives won’t tend to be
better-educated and more affluent natives. - States who saw largest share of immigrant workers saw largest decline in less educated native employment.
- Share of less educated native workforce declined by 5% locally and 3% nationally.
- Less educated natives left the workforce in greater percentages in states with highest immigration.
- The increase in supply of workers lowers:
- Benefits
- Wages
- Working conditions
- Immigrants are perceived as better workers than natives
- Immigrants do much better at networking in terms of getting job.
- Conclusions:
- In 2005 there were 4 million native’s unemployed and 19 million who stopped looking for work.
- The share of unemployed with less education is way up.
- The U.S. does not have a 5% unemployment rate. The 5% unemployment rate is used to support immigration.
- Unemployment among less educated natives is up 11% while it is 13% for dropouts.
- The perception is the U.S. is in need of less educated workers, which is not true.
- They already have the highest unemployment rate, the lowest wage rate and employment participation among less educated has declined dramatically.
- They took the poorest workers and made them poorer.
- Less educated immigrants and less educated natives do the same kinds of work.
- There is no such thing as a job a native will not do.
- Allowing legal status to illegals has enormous implications for America’s poorest workers.
- America is not short of less educated workers given the high unemployment rate and the high number of less educated workers who have stopped looking.
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/sactestimony042904.html
http://www.cis.org/articles/2005/back505.pdf
http://www.cis.org/articles/2005/back505.html
posted by William Larsen @ 3:15 AM
4 Comments:
We are going through the greatest prosperity and home ownership percentage in America's History. We also have more immigrants (legal or otherwise) coming into this country than ever. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Read Let all 100 million Mexicans in
Mr. Larsen, perhaps you should give immigration a higher priority in your campaign. Social Security isn't exactly the hot issue right now; it's illegals suddenly crying xenophobia when it finally looks like they're being called out.
bernie, home ownership is cyclical. It comes from the fact that a boom begets a boom and a bust begets a bust. The children of the boomers are beginning to buy homes. This means for the next few years, we should see steady demand for homes. The problem is, home ownership may not be the best investment. With companies down sizing and workers moving more often, the cost of moving can be large especially when you must sell a home. Is it cheaper to rent than to own? It all depends on your living style.
As for the greatest prosperity, would you please quantify your statement? Is it individuals or as a group that is gong through the greatest prosperity? I heard on the news that there has been a significant increase in interest only mortgages where no principal is paid for a number of years. These loans have made it easier to buy a home. Many economists think we have peaked and a bubble is about to burst.
andrew, I agree immigration is an issue and an important one at that. I am not against immigration. My grandfather came from Norway and my grandmother from England. They worked hard and made sure their son (my dad) did better than they did. The problem I see is with illegal immigration. We need and should demand controlled immigration, not uncontrolled through illegals. Look what happened when Katrina hit? People were displaced to all parts of the country stretching resources. Illegals coming in are no different, they put strain on our infrastructure in terms of schools and healthcare increasing costs.
They are no better educated than the 4 million unemployed and the 19 million who have stopped looking for a job. As I referenced Steven Camarota presentation, there is no job that immigrants or illegals perform that Americans will not do. What the data clearly shows is that Americans are being displaced by illegals who have a better network for seeking and obtaining jobs.
My stance on illegal immigration has not changed, but it seems to be getting a lot of headlines today.
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