Immigration

Immigration: A Complex issue that Affects All of Us.  Consensus Questions.  Question 4.  Study Brief #2 - Immigration: Impact on U.S. Economy.

Immigration: A Complex issue that Affects All of Us

Immigration is an emotional issue with many points of view. League members and leaders will explore the underlying values and principles regarding immigration, reasons for immigration, current federal immigration policy, and the impact of immigration in American society. Other related topics covered will include:
▪ Business and economic effects and impact
▪ Diversity
▪ Effects of global interdependence on migration Motivation of refugees, asylees and other immigrants

LWVUS is concluding a two-year study and has prepared excellent background papers that can be found at: http://www.lwv.org. In the left hand column look for Immigration Policy and click on: "Follow our Study and Get Educated" to find these eight position papers:

▪ Immigration Policy: Family Reunification
▪ What Motivates Immigration to America?
▪ Federal Immigration Policy: Enforcement Issues
▪ Immigration: Diversity and Inclusion
▪ Effects Of Global Interdependence On Migration
▪ Economic Aspects of Authorized and Unauthorized Immigration
▪ Immigration and the Economy
▪ Overview: Federal Immigration Policy and Proposed Reforms

In addition you will find four Immigration Study Briefs (#2 is reproduced at the end this insert):

▪ #1 -- Global Interdependence and Migration
▪ #2 -- Immigration: Impact on U.S. Economy
▪ #3 -- Border Enforcement
▪ #4 -- Family Reunification and Diversity Policies

The web site also list books and reports such as:

William Dudley, Ed. Illegal Immigration. Opposing Viewpoints Series. Greenhaven Press. 2002.

Oscar Handlin. The Uprooted: The Epic Story of the Great Migrations That Made the American People. Little, Brown and Co. 1973 University of Pennsylvania Press. 2002.

Immigration and America's Future: A New Chapter. Report of the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future. Spencer Abraham and Lee H. Hamilton, Co-Chairs. Migration Policy Institute. 2006.

Tamar Jacoby, Ed. Reinventing the Melting Pot: The New Immigrants and What it Means t be American. NY: Free Press. 2004.

There are a number of websites that have more material on immigration:

http://www.pewhispanic.org/ The State of American Public Opinion on Immigration in Spring 2006: A Review of Major Surveys. Pew Hispanic Center Fact sheet.

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/ The Migration Policy Institute provides a gateway to solid demographic information in the US with a link to states specific information

http://www.cirnow.org/ New American Opportunity Campaign (NAOC). Pro-immigrant organization working for comprehensive immigration law reform.

http://www.immigrationforum.org/ National Immigration Forum website includes information about current events + reports, legislative action, news releases, etc.

http://www.nilc.org/ National Immigration Law Center website includes mostly current event coverage.

Consensus Questions

Federal immigration laws should take into consideration criteria such as the following (not listed in any particular order or hierarchy):
Part a:
a. Ethnic and Cultural Diversity

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

b. Economic, Business and Service Employment Needs

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

c. Environmental Impact/Sustainability

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

d. Family Reunification of Authorized Immigrants and Citizens with Spouses and Minor Children

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

e. History of Criminal Activity

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

f. Humanitarian Crises/ Political Persecution in Home Countries

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

g. Immigrant Characteristics (health and age)

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

h. Rights of All Workers to Safe Working Conditions and Livable Wage

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

i. Rights of Families to Remain Together

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

j. Rights of all Individuals in U.S. to Fair Treatment Under the Law (Fair Hearing, Right to Counsel, Right of Appeal and Humane Treatment

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

k. Education and Training

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

Unauthorized immigrants currently in the U.S. should be treated as follows: (rate each one)
a. Deport Unauthorized Immigrants

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

b. Some Deported/Some Allowed To Earn Legal Adjustment of Status Based on Length of Residence in U.S.

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

c. Some Deported/Some Allowed to Earn Legal Adjustment of Status Based on Needs of US Employers

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

d. All Allowed to Earn Legal Adjustment of Status by Doing Things Such as Paying Taxes, Learning English, Studying Civics, Etc.

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

e. If Deported Assess Fines Before Possible Re-Entry

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

f. Assess Fines Before Allowed To Earn Legal Adjustment Of Status

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

Federal immigration law should provide an efficient, expeditious system (with minimal or no backlogs) for legal entry into the U.S. for immigrants who are: (rate each one)
a. Deport Unauthorized Immigrants

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

b. Some Deported/Some Allowed To Earn Legal Adjustment of Status Based on Length of Residence in U.S.

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

c. Some Deported/Some Allowed to Earn Legal Adjustment of Status Based on Needs of US Employers

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

d. All Allowed to Earn Legal Adjustment of Status by Doing Things Such as Paying Taxes, Learning English, Studying Civics, Etc.

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

Question 4

Instructions: Rate each of the following "High Priority,"" Lower Priority", "Disagree," or "No Consensus."

Question 4a: In order to deal more effectively with unauthorized immigrants, Federal immigration law should include:

Social Security Card or Other National Identification Card with Secure Identifiers for All Persons Residing in the U.S.

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

Question 4b: Federal immigration law dealing with unauthorized immigrants should be enforced by including: (rate each one)

i. Physical Barriers (such as Fences) and Surveillance at Borders

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

ii. Increased Personnel at Land, Air and Sea Entry Points

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

iii. More Effective Tracking of Persons with Non-Immigrant Visas Until They Leave the Country

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

iv. Verification Documents, such as Green Cards and Work Permits With Secure Identifiers

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

v. Improved Technology to Facilitate Employer Verification of Employee Visa Status

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

vi. Improved Technology for Sharing Information Among Federal Agencies

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

vii. A Program to Allow Immigrant Workers to Go in and Out of the U.S. to Meet Seasonal and Sporadic Labor Needs

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

viii. Significant Fines Pro-Propionate to Revenue for Employers Who Fail to Take Adequate Steps to Verify Work Authorization of Employees

High Priority	Lower Priority	Disagree	No Consensus

Federal immigration law should address and balance the long-term federal financial benefit from immigrants with the financial costs borne by states and local governments with large immigrant populations.

Consensus	No Consensus

Federal immigration law should be coordinated with U.S. foreign policy to pro-actively help improve economies, education and job opportunities, and living conditions of nations with large emigrating populations.

Consensus	No Consensus

Study Brief #2 - Immigration: Impact on U.S. Economy

Historically, immigrants have come to this country for a variety of reasons, but economic opportunity has always been a major draw. And, the U.S. economy has not disappointed. It has accommodated an expanding labor supply that today includes 1.5 million immigrants per year whose spending on housing and consumer goods helps stimulate the economy and increase the demand for still more labor.

Workforce Shortfall
At a time when a "baby boomer" decrease is anticipated in the workforce, economists expect demand to create millions of new jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 56 million new jobs will be created in this country between 2002 and 2012. During this same period, more than 75 million Americans will retire, and declining native-born fertility rates will be approaching replacement level. Various interests consider new immigrants a necessary labor source to meet this shortfall.

Costs and Benefits
Immigrants have had a profound impact on company creation, economic innovation and market value in the U.S. A PRNewswire article (November 15, 2006) reported that over the past 15 years, immigrants founded one of every four U.S. public companies that received venture capital. Forty-seven percent of current venture-backed companies in the U.S. have immigrant founders. Nearly half of the immigrant entrepreneurs surveyed came to the U.S. as students and started their own businesses within 12 years of entering the country. According to a Migration Policy Institute publication, Immigration and America's Future: A New Chapter, the number of Hispanic-owned businesses has grown at three times the national average, while the number of Asian-owned businesses has grown at twice the national average.

Furthermore, the negative effect of authorized and unauthorized immigrants on public-sector budgets is small. Immigrant workers pay into social insurance programs, lessening strains on social assistance for the elderly. Many unauthorized workers use false ID numbers and pay Social Security taxes but are ineligible to receive benefits. Less than three percent of immigrants receive food stamps. Unauthorized workers support local school districts through property taxes, indirectly as renters or directly as homeowners.

Taxes paid to the federal government and increased macroeconomic productivity result in a net benefit to the country as a whole from immigrants. However, studies indicate that costs and benefits are not evenly allocated locally. Communities face demands for costly services from immigrants, particularly in education and health care, which are not offset by tax income. But this type of financial burden is applicable to all low-income, uninsured populations--unauthorized, authorized and native-born. As Tamar Jacoby notes (Foreign Affairs, Nov./Dec. 2006), the additional state tax burden per native household is, on average, no more than a couple of hundred dollars a year.

Perceived Problems
Opponents of immigration often suggest that if employers paid American workers more, they could reduce the need for foreign labor. However, many industries cannot pay more, because they would be undercut by imports from abroad. Even in sectors such as construction and hospitality, where the work must be done in the U.S., companies must decide whether it is better to lure Americans to jobs that require lower skills than those that they possess by paying more for less-skilled work. Meanwhile, because they complement rather than compete with most native-born workers (this, in turn, attracts additional capital), immigrant workers are a factor in raising rather than lowering most American wages.

For the past decade, market forces have attracted 1.5-1.8 million skilled and unskilled immigrants to work in the U.S. each year. However, annual legal quotas admitted only about a million immigrants, resulting in a significant imbalance. A realistic immigration system would make the annual legal intake more or less equal to the flow generated by supply and demand. The U.S. currently issues 5,000 visas per year to year-round unskilled workers, while 400,000-500,000 additional such workers are needed to keep the economy growing.

Disaster or Inconvenience
A legitimate way to assess the role and value of immigrants' contribution to America is to consider what would happen if the influx stopped or if those already here left the country. Proponents of comprehensive reform ("bring in more workers") believe this would be disastrous. In some regions, they contend, whole sectors of the economy could collapse. Opponents maintain that a cut-off would mean, at most, a temporary inconvenience for a few employers, who would soon wean themselves away from their dependence on foreign workers. Whichever path is chosen, there is one certainty: the consequences will affect everyone.

This brief is based on two LWVUS Immigration Study Committee background papers, "Immigration and the Economy" by Chris Carson and "Economic Aspects of Authorized and Unauthorized Immigration" by Dorrit Marks. These papers, including full citations of sources, are available at http://www.lwv.org.

Comments, suggestions, questions? Contact our webmaster. Last revised: April 26, 2008 16:13 PDT.

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