Do immigrants really depress wages? |
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Rather than displacing large swaths of working class natives, immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, fill positions in sections of the labor market largely abandoned by natives. Espenshade (1995) found that, "empirical findings are more consistent with the position that undocumented workers hold jobs that other groups find unattractive than with the widely held public perception that illegals compete with natives... for jobs and wages" (p. 209). Low-skilled immigrants are merely off-setting the decline in the low-skill native labor force. Capps, Fix and Fortuny (2007) found that between 2000 and 2005, the "total number of native-born low-wage workers fell by about 1.8 million, while the number of immigrants rose by 620,000," leaving the U.S. with a net loss of at least 1.2 million low-wage workers (p. 2; see figure 3). The driving force behind this process is education. "As more and more native-born adults are earning high school diplomas and college degrees, there is an increasing... demand for lower-skilled immigrants" (Capps et al., 2007 p. 4). The fact that the very slight changes in the labor participation among natives lacking a college education were the same as those of immigrants and college graduates (see figures 4 and 5), also suggests that immigrants are not displacing uneducated natives (if they were, the decrease in labor participation among uneducated natives would have been greater than for college graduates and immigrants). Consequently, the effect of immigration on natives' wages is extremely slight, with estimates ranging from a long-term increase of 1.8% to a decrease of 3% (Capps et al., 2007). With immigrants merely filling a gap in the labor market, "there seems [to be] little doubt... that any negative effects of immigration on earnings are modest in magnitude and mostly short-term in nature" (Holzer, 2006). Sources:
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  written by Glennsopinions, April 17, 2008
Well, well, well, The Urban Institute's list of donors and members speaks for its self ... La Raza?? All Liberals? Some businesses that have been in trouble for hiring illegals Pllllleeeeeeeaaaaaasssssse .......
http://www.urban.org/annualreport/sponsors.html back in a couple of weeks .... report abuse
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This statement "empirical findings are more consistent with the position that undocumented workers hold jobs that other groups find unattractive than with the widely held public perception that illegals compete with natives..." is pure garbage from someone who had no experience in either business or working with teenagers in the areas where illegals have had the greatest negative impact. In San Bernardino County California, the teenage unemployment rate from 17-19 is 77%, more than 3 times what it was 15 years ago. These entry level jobs are being taken in large part by illegals. ICE made a couple of raids on some local restraunts and found 1/2 of the back stage workers were illegal. Legal teens lined up to fill those positions such as dishwashers and bus boys. You can search the Victor Valley Daily Press for the details. In Tucson, Arizona, the unemployment rate of the same age group in June of 2007 was estimated to be about 80%. With the new Arizona legal workers act, it has dropped off to in the 60% range (new figures should be out sometime this month) due the teens taking the jobs. Some businesses had to raise their wages some to attract other applicants, which is Real World proof that illegals hold wages down. I am willing to bet you a months income that when the year end tax figures for Arizona are in for 2008, you will find that the average wage in the state will have grown well above the national average due to the employers who were hiring illegals at slave wage rates being forced to offer more money to attract legal labor.
No, the Urban Institute is another tax funded group of "Welfare Researchers" who are bent on opening the borders and letting the illegals flow by using old talking points and not presenting any Real World field research. Sorry, that dog don't hunt in the Real World.