Does Immigration Hurt U.s. Workers?

Throughout the years there has been and increasing number of illegal immigrants in this country. Just recently Obama took executive action to shield illegal immigrants from deportation. A Texas Judge though blocked his executive action on immigration. Illegal immigration is a huge controversy here in the United States partly due to Americans thinking that illegal immigrates are taking jobs, causing lower wages, and the costs of education. In Immigration and the American Worker, George Borjas found that the presence of immigrant workers, whether they are legal or illegal, made the U.S economy about 11 percent larger each year. If overall the U.S economy is better off with illegal immigrant workers, then why is there a push for harsher immigration policies? The controversy is due to the fact that the impact of illegal immigration changes from state to state. I hypothesize that the problem is the distribution of illegal immigrants across the United States. I believe that the benefits outweigh the costs and that because of the distribution of illegal immigrants, the costs are only felt by a few. By granting amnesty to the undocumented workers we could increase the level of tax payers and better the lives of those who feel the costs of illegal immigrants the most. I will test this hypothesis out by looking at the impact illegal immigrant on the labor market, the cost of illegal immigration, cost of ant-immigrant policies, impact of legalization, and impact of amnesty.

Joe Messerli published an article that addressed the positive and negative effects immigrants have on the U.S. Obviously, having a larger population causes there to be greater competition to obtain work, however, the majority of the positions obtained by illegal immigrants are those that are undesired by Americans; low-skilled, low-paying, labor-intensive jobs (Messerli 2). Illegal immigrants pursue careers like dishwashers, landscapers, field workers, housekeepers, and food-processing plant workers. Very few Americans have the desire to obtain these jobs, whereas, illegal immigrants fill those positions gladly and do so at decreased wages. They also stay employed in those positions for many years, normally without the possibility of promotion. Americans however, only remain in such low-skilled, low-paying jobs for a short time, seeking to advance to higher paying positions.

There is question on whether or not the immigrants will help or hurt the economy. Some say immigrants will take jobs from Americans and damper U.S. tax rolls because they aren’t as skilled or educated. The fact is immigrants actually increase “overall wages and the pool of jobs” and add to the U.S. revenue (Dwoskin). In 2006 there was a suspected “21 million immigrants, about 15 percent of the labor force, [that] h[e]ld jobs in the U.S.” However, the U.S. only had about seven million unemployed. “So the majority of immigrants can't literally have "taken" jobs; they must be doing jobs that wouldn't have existed had the immigrants not been here,” (Lowenstein). Roger Lowenstein also presents a valid and insightful point in stating that immigrants who take these jobs that “wouldn’t have existed”, relative prices could be lowered in a similar way that global trade does.

U.S.A Economy: An increasingly vital role. Immigration Policy Focus. Volume 1, Issue 2. PP. 4-16.

Over the past years, our nation has been dealing with immigration issues. The issues have divided our nation and brought about disruption in the nations unity. The immigration topic which has been an issue for many years, was also a major topic in our 2016 presidential election. However not only that, the topic evokes questions about the outcome of our nation's economy, if all illegal immigrants were to be removed.

The law has since been shaped through different eras and different political views over the years. In more recent years, unauthorized immigration law in particular has become a major topic. From our law making politicians, Congress, political debates and school; it has been one of the focused topics. Do Illegal immigrants hurt the US economy? This question has been a matter that has plagued so many for years without any perfect answer. Many hearts have been filled and troubled with lots of thoughts which have led to the question; how do unauthorized immigrants affect the US economy.

As of recently, immigration has come to the forefront of political issues in the United States. There are two main sectors of immigration that our government highlights as problem areas: undocumented immigration and immigration from the Middle East. The number one issue brought up when discussing undocumented immigration is its effect on the economy. There is a plethora of rhetoric that we hear and see in our society telling us that immigrants steal our jobs and destroy our economy. When confronted with this prospect, there is one obvious question: Is it true that undocumented immigrants really hurt our economy? This question has various components that need to be researched in

The prospect of employment in the United States has always been somewhat of an economic magnet drawing people in with the hopes of financial stability. With the rail road, world war II and agricultural work force demands, immigrants saw opportunities for more money and a better way of life. These events in our history along with others, have caused an increase in undocumented immigrants. As the immigration population started to increase American Citizens began to worry about the impact this would have on the economy.

The article covers the result of having undocumented immigrants in the United States. It focuses on the influence immigrants have on different occupations and wages in the dual labor market model and the financial impacts of illegal immigrants. Even though illegal immigrants may force a fiscal cost on the state and local levels, this cost should be managed by distributing certain resources between the federal and local governments. In this paper, the author argues that illegal immigration has a positive impact on the country’s economy.

The topic chosen is the impact of immigration on the agriculture in the United states. Within this topic, there are many aspects to be considered. How much of the labor force of the agricultural industry has included immigrants? How do the positive and negative aspects weigh out? Many people have an opinion on immigrants, but there are some that lack the basic knowledge of the positive effects of immigration.

The Article Immigration Policy: Should the U.S. government take stricter measures to limit illegal immigration (February 9, 2017), focuses on whether the U.S. should adopt stricter measures for illegal immigration. Supporters believe that illegal immigrants pose a threat to national security. Undocumented immigrants are not in the system, so their criminal records are inaccessible. Additionally, supporters believe that immigrants take the jobs of Americans. Companies tend to give immigrants jobs because they will work for cheap wages. However, the opponents of the law believe stricter measures for illegal immigrants shouldn’t be done because most of the country's technological breakthroughs are due to immigrants. Opponents believe that immigrants help the economy because they take the jobs that not many workers take, such as farming or physical work. Immigration policy argument will continue until there is common ground established between everyone whether to there should be stricter measures or another way for them to become documented.

Illegal migrants contribute an important source of low-skilled labor, they also respond to market conditions in ways that legal immigrants cannot. Making them particularly appealing to US employers. Illegal immigration’s overall impact on the US is small. Low –skilled native workers who compete with unauthorized immigration are the clearest losers. Employers gain from lower labor costs and the ability to use their lands, capital, and technology more productively. The stakes are highest for the illegal aliens themselves, who see very substantial income gains after migrating; however, the small net gain that remains after subtracting US worker’s losses from US Employer’s gain is tiny.

Virginia Postrel’s essay on the article published by The New York Times flipped my presuppositions about foreign immigrant’s affects on the United States’ wages. I have always assumed that foreign immigrants have driven wages down in America. Upon learning about substitutes and complements, I immediately placed immigrants into a direct substitute category without any further research. However, Postrel’s essay changed my mind. I learned that the immigrants may not be direct substitutes, and they may be complements to the work force. Postrel elaborated on this, and she mentioned the many studies economists have performed on the matter. Instead of being competition for American born citizens, they, for the most part, work entirely different jobs.

Immigration has always been part of the racial landscape of America. The effect of immigration to the America economy has not gone unnoticed, however, the policy makers have decided not to take active measure to do something about it. The contribution of the immigrants both legal and illegal ranges from high teach immigrants to the migrant workers who work in the agricultural field. The focus is on the agricultural worker or otherwise known as the farm workers. Most of this people migrate from countries boarding United State of America in the south. The question is, how do we evaluate the contribution of the migrant workers to the American economy relative to the current immigration policy. Ironically, president Bush and Obama Administrations has made immigration reform a high priority over the last decade, Congress has failed to act, and nothing has been accomplished at the federal level (Hansen, 2009).

Illegal immigration negatively affects the American workforce. In the United States, there are over 11.2 million people here illegally. A study has shown that 71.4 percent of the 11.2 million illegal population are working. This drastically high number displaces over 8 million jobs from legal immigrants and US citizens, and the number increases by approximately 730,000 jobs to illegals every year. Low-skilled American citizens and legal immigrants can struggle to get these stolen jobs, and this can be crucial and detrimental to their lives, as it can be the driving force that determines whether their family