Is Immigration Good or Bad for the United States?
My friend Neil sent me an interesting piece (Immigration in the USA) from David Brooks, a center-right commentator on politics and culture. And then he sent me another piece (Immigrants as Assets)
on the same subject: Immigration. Certainly this is a hot topic in our
culture and society right now. Lots of folks on the various sides of
this argument with lots of thought on what this means. How do we sort
this out? Lets ask a series of questions and see if there is supporting
information that lets us look at these questions in more detail.
There has been a lot of discussion concerning the break down occurring in small towns (Is Rural America The New Inner City?). With this there is the suggestion that immigration might help (Immigrants improve small towns) or hurt (Immigrants won't save small towns) the situation. One interesting paper (Immigration and the New Racial Diversity in Rural America) addresses this question, in which the author suggests "that Hispanic in-migration and population growth have rejuvenated many small towns, especially in the depopulating parts of the rural Midwest ". Another positive voice: The Mexican Revival of Small-Town America.
Is there a resource that can break down the numbers involved? How many immigrants, what percentage of the population, etc. The Migration Policy Institute has a nice page on this called Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States.
One question I have is demographic. In demographics they talk about the 'replacement rate' this is how many babies the average woman has in order to maintain the same population size. This wikipedia article (Sub-replacement Fertility) gives you a sense of the idea. So one question is: Are native American women having enough babies to replace the population? You might ask: Why is this important? Surely fewer people on the planet is a good thing? There are interesting economic problems that occur if the rate is low. For instance the Social Security system that I will be relying on in a couple years is structured so that current retirees are paid by current workers. And if the number of current workers declines the amount of money available to current retirees is less. This is almost certainly a large problem. The reason it's a large problem is that the baby boomers are a large bump in the population and they are retiring in droves. And what's worse (for some folks and not others) they are living longer.
The next interesting question, related to the demographic question, has to do with GDP (Gross Domestic Product, a measure of the size of the economy). Pro Publica suggests that one way to boost the economy is by immigration: The Immigration Effect. Indeed the author says that "we calculated that deporting the estimated 11.3 million undocumented people in this country would be an almost $8 trillion hit to the economy over the next 14 years."
Another question has to do with productivity. Productivity has to do with the ratio of outputs of a production process to its inputs. That is, are we getting more or less output for a given input. If immigration were displacing native labor, you might suppose the productivity to be reduced for any of a number of reasons: language, relative lack of education, etc. Economist Giovanni Peri suggests (The Effect of Immigrants on U.S. Employment and Productivity) that this is not the case.
Question about immigrants and entrepreneurial activity. Do immigrants create more new businesses? One commentator says yes: Nearly 6 Million Workers Employed at Immigrant-Owned Businesses, New Report Finds.
One question that occurs in the agricultural sector is (H-2B) guest worker visas. What happens if these are restricted? The US Chamber of Commerce has weighed in on this question: The Ecomonic Impact of H-2B Workers, in which they assert "many American businesses could not function without the H-2B program".
One interesting question that the Brooks article raises has to do with attitudes in regions that have both a rural context and immigration. One report suggests that folks like immigrants better if they are a higher percentage of the community: In rural America, fewer immigrants and less tolerance, where the author notes "in rural areas where less than 2 percent of the population are immigrants, less than 4 in 10 residents say immigrants strengthen the country. But that rises to nearly 6 in 10 in rural areas where at least 5 percent are born outside the United States".
One interesting question has to do with employers using illegal immigration. How much of the economy is this? The Roosevelt Institute at Cornell has some thoughts: The Unseen Economics of Illegal Immigration. More specifically, does illegal immigration suppress wages? The paper quotes “Based on a survey of the academic literature, economists do not tend to find that immigrants cause any sizeable decrease in wages and employment of U.S.-born citizens and instead may raise wages and lower prices in the aggregate.”
Do immigrants 'steal' American jobs? Brookings has a good piece: Do immigrants “steal” jobs from American workers?
Do immigrants commit crimes at a higher rate than native Americans? The Washington Post says no: Trumps Claim That Immigrants Bring Tremendous Crime Is Still Wrong.
Is there an interesting historical context? How has this country dealt with this issue in the past?
Do Americans not want to do jobs that involve hard labor? Or don't pay well?
Does the American economy benefit from 'exploiting' illegal labor? Perhaps unsurprisingly yes: Big employers no strangers to benefits of cheap, illegal labor.
The question of single males coming first and families following. Social stability?
There has been a lot of discussion concerning the break down occurring in small towns (Is Rural America The New Inner City?). With this there is the suggestion that immigration might help (Immigrants improve small towns) or hurt (Immigrants won't save small towns) the situation. One interesting paper (Immigration and the New Racial Diversity in Rural America) addresses this question, in which the author suggests "that Hispanic in-migration and population growth have rejuvenated many small towns, especially in the depopulating parts of the rural Midwest ". Another positive voice: The Mexican Revival of Small-Town America.
Is there a resource that can break down the numbers involved? How many immigrants, what percentage of the population, etc. The Migration Policy Institute has a nice page on this called Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States.
One question I have is demographic. In demographics they talk about the 'replacement rate' this is how many babies the average woman has in order to maintain the same population size. This wikipedia article (Sub-replacement Fertility) gives you a sense of the idea. So one question is: Are native American women having enough babies to replace the population? You might ask: Why is this important? Surely fewer people on the planet is a good thing? There are interesting economic problems that occur if the rate is low. For instance the Social Security system that I will be relying on in a couple years is structured so that current retirees are paid by current workers. And if the number of current workers declines the amount of money available to current retirees is less. This is almost certainly a large problem. The reason it's a large problem is that the baby boomers are a large bump in the population and they are retiring in droves. And what's worse (for some folks and not others) they are living longer.
The next interesting question, related to the demographic question, has to do with GDP (Gross Domestic Product, a measure of the size of the economy). Pro Publica suggests that one way to boost the economy is by immigration: The Immigration Effect. Indeed the author says that "we calculated that deporting the estimated 11.3 million undocumented people in this country would be an almost $8 trillion hit to the economy over the next 14 years."
Another question has to do with productivity. Productivity has to do with the ratio of outputs of a production process to its inputs. That is, are we getting more or less output for a given input. If immigration were displacing native labor, you might suppose the productivity to be reduced for any of a number of reasons: language, relative lack of education, etc. Economist Giovanni Peri suggests (The Effect of Immigrants on U.S. Employment and Productivity) that this is not the case.
Question about immigrants and entrepreneurial activity. Do immigrants create more new businesses? One commentator says yes: Nearly 6 Million Workers Employed at Immigrant-Owned Businesses, New Report Finds.
One question that occurs in the agricultural sector is (H-2B) guest worker visas. What happens if these are restricted? The US Chamber of Commerce has weighed in on this question: The Ecomonic Impact of H-2B Workers, in which they assert "many American businesses could not function without the H-2B program".
One interesting question that the Brooks article raises has to do with attitudes in regions that have both a rural context and immigration. One report suggests that folks like immigrants better if they are a higher percentage of the community: In rural America, fewer immigrants and less tolerance, where the author notes "in rural areas where less than 2 percent of the population are immigrants, less than 4 in 10 residents say immigrants strengthen the country. But that rises to nearly 6 in 10 in rural areas where at least 5 percent are born outside the United States".
One interesting question has to do with employers using illegal immigration. How much of the economy is this? The Roosevelt Institute at Cornell has some thoughts: The Unseen Economics of Illegal Immigration. More specifically, does illegal immigration suppress wages? The paper quotes “Based on a survey of the academic literature, economists do not tend to find that immigrants cause any sizeable decrease in wages and employment of U.S.-born citizens and instead may raise wages and lower prices in the aggregate.”
Do immigrants 'steal' American jobs? Brookings has a good piece: Do immigrants “steal” jobs from American workers?
Do immigrants commit crimes at a higher rate than native Americans? The Washington Post says no: Trumps Claim That Immigrants Bring Tremendous Crime Is Still Wrong.
Is there an interesting historical context? How has this country dealt with this issue in the past?
Do Americans not want to do jobs that involve hard labor? Or don't pay well?
Does the American economy benefit from 'exploiting' illegal labor? Perhaps unsurprisingly yes: Big employers no strangers to benefits of cheap, illegal labor.
The question of single males coming first and families following. Social stability?
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