The logic behind these economic gains is straightforward. As discussed below, legal status and citizenship enable undocumented immigrants to produce and earn significantly more than they do when they are on the economic sidelines. The resulting productivity and wage gains ripple through the economy because immigrants are not just workers—they are also consumers and taxpayers.
They will spend their increased earnings on the purchase of food, clothing, housing, cars, and computers. That spending, in turn, will stimulate demand in the economy for more products and services, which creates jobs and expands the economy. This paper analyzes the year economic impact of immigration reform under three scenarios. The first scenario assumes that legal status and citizenship are both accorded to the undocumented in The second scenario assumes that the unauthorized are provided legal status in and are able to earn citizenship five years thereafter.
The third scenario assumes that the unauthorized are granted legal status starting in but that they are not provided a means to earn citizenship—at least within the year timeframe of our analysis. Under the first scenario—in which undocumented immigrants are granted legal status and citizenship in —U. Within five years of the reform, unauthorized immigrants would be earning This means that they would also be contributing significantly more in federal, state, and local taxes.
Under the second scenario—in which undocumented immigrants are granted legal status in and citizenship five years thereafter—the year cumulative increase in U.
On average over the 10 years, this immigration reform would create , jobs per year. Given the delay in acquiring citizenship relative to the first scenario, it would take 10 years instead of five for the incomes of the unauthorized to increase Finally, under the third scenario—in which undocumented immigrants are granted legal status starting in but are not eligible for citizenship within 10 years—the cumulative gain in U.
The income of the unauthorized would be These immigration reform scenarios illustrate that unauthorized immigrants are currently earning far less than their potential, paying much less in taxes, and contributing significantly less to the U. They also make clear that Americans stand to gain more from an immigration reform policy of legalization and citizenship than they do from one of legalization alone—or from no reform at all.
Finally, the magnitude of potential economic gains depends significantly on how quickly reforms are implemented. The sooner that legal status and citizenship are granted to the unauthorized, the greater the gains will be for the U. Numerous studies and government data sets have shown that positive economic outcomes are highly correlated with legal status and citizenship.
Large and detailed government datasets—such as the U. Within the immigrant community, economic outcomes also vary by legal status. A study done by George Borjas and Marta Tienda found that prior to Mexican immigrant men legally in the United States earned 6 percent more than unauthorized Mexican male immigrants. Katherine Donato and Blake Sisk, for example, found that between and , the average hourly wage of Mexican immigrants legally in the United States was In addition, a U. Department of Labor study—based on a carefully constructed and large longitudinal survey of the nearly 3 million unauthorized immigrants who were granted legal status and given a road map to citizenship under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of —found that these previously undocumented immigrants experienced a Studies have also reported that citizenship provides an added economic boost above and beyond the gains from legalization.
Manuel Pastor and Justin Scoggins, for instance, found that even when controlling for a range of factors such as educational attainment and national origin, naturalized immigrants earned 11 percent more than legal noncitizens. There are several reasons why legalization and citizenship both raise the incomes of immigrants and improve economic outcomes. Providing a road map to citizenship to undocumented immigrants gives them legal protections that raise their wages.
It also promotes investment in the education and training of immigrants that eventually pays off in the form of higher wages and output; grants access to a broader range of higher-paying jobs; encourages labor mobility which increases the returns on the labor skills of immigrants by improving the efficiency of the labor market such that the skillsets of immigrants more closely match the jobs that they perform; and makes it more possible for immigrants to start businesses and create jobs.
Each of these reasons is explained in more detail below. Legalization allows the newly authorized to invoke the numerous employment rights that they previously could not benefit from—but were in most cases entitled to—due to their constant fear of being deported.
Providing unauthorized workers with legal status increases their bargaining power relative to their employers, which in turn lowers the likelihood of worker exploitation and suppressed wages. This means that newly legal immigrants will be better equipped to contest an unlawful termination of employment, to negotiate for fair compensation or a promotion, and to file a complaint if they believe they are being mistreated or abused.
Citizenship provides even greater protections than legalization. Citizens, for example, cannot be deported, while immigrants who are legal residents are still subject to deportation under certain circumstances. Legal status and a road map to citizenship both provide a guarantee of long-term membership in American society and cause noncitizen immigrants to invest in their English language skills and in other forms of education and training that raise their productivity. First, it has come from a redistribution of income from native unskilled workers.
The rectangle W 2 W 1 BE , which before immigration was part of the total payment to unskilled workers, is now paid to skilled workers. The second part comes from the value of new output that is not paid to immigrants. In other words, the triangle EBC represents a net gain to native skilled workers that arises because of immigration. The figure also shows that the size of the native gain triangle EBC is directly proportional both to the number of immigrants and to the decline in the wage of unskilled workers.
In fact, the more the wage of unskilled workers declines due to immigration, the larger the native gain will be. If the wage of unskilled workers did not fall, there would be no native gain. But what if immigrants arrive with skills that do not substitute for any native workers' skills?
For instance, what if all immigrants had less than a high school education, while all natives had more than a high school education? Then all native labor would complement immigrant labor and all natives—skilled and unskilled—would gain. On the other hand, what if immigrants were perfect substitutes for native workers, matching the native labor force exactly?
That is, what if immigrants arrived in the same proportion of skilled and unskilled workers as the native population? In this case, no loss in native wages would occur. Total national output would increase because immigrants would now produce all of the additional output, and the fruits of their labor would return directly to them. Native workers would be no better or worse off. Thus, natives gain only when the immigrants' skills differ from their own.
To make this account more realistic, assume that the economy now produces two goods instead of just one, as before. Let's call the two goods kibbles and bits. While this change may seem trivial, it opens a new realm of choices for workers and consumers because the relative price—the price of one good in terms of the other—can now change. With this change, workers can now choose which industry they want to work in, with immigration likely influencing the choice.
Producing kibbles requires a lot of unskilled labor and only a little skilled labor. Producing bits requires just the opposite. Without immigration or foreign trade, the economy can efficiently produce and consume a certain amount of kibbles and bits. What happens, then, when unskilled labor immigrates to the economy? As before, the wage of native unskilled workers declines and that of skilled workers increases.
And now, because it has become cheaper to produce kibbles, which uses a lot of unskilled labor, their price falls relative to bits. Because of this relative price change, more consumers demand kibbles. Those who really like kibbles gain the most from the price reduction; those who prefer bits don't gain as much. As in the single-good scenario, there are winners and losers. In addition to lower production costs, the increased supply of unskilled labor also lets some domestic kibbles workers shift to bits production, where they have the comparative advantage over immigrant workers.
More kibbles and bits can now be produced because the native labor force is more efficiently allocated as a result of immigration. Thus, in this two-good scenario, the economy gains on two fronts: 1 through a lower relative price for the good that immigrants are better at producing; and 2 through the redistribution of domestic labor to the production of the good for which it has the comparative advantage.
Lower prices and greater variety benefit all in the economy. Although recent immigration levels red bars have surpassed the records set at the turn of the century, recent immigration rates blue bars , which adjust for population, are far below rates in the s. NOTE: Data for the s and s include immigrants who had entered the country illegally, but obtained legal status under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of The effects of immigration on the U.
A common finding of these studies is that immigrants normally receive higher wages in the United States than they would in their native countries. In , there were 11 million undocumented individuals in the United States. This number has remained unchanged from , and represents a decline from Since the program began in , more than , individuals have had their applications for DACA approved—and the U. Studies have confirmed that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans and they are associated with lower crime rates.
This statement for the record was submitted as a part of the July 21, hearing by the U. Economy and Workforce Farmworkers. DHS-Docket No. Become part of our action network and help us continue to forge a society that provides equal opportunity to all. Your contribution will help fund our work to supporting policies and projects that support the Latinx community.
By , annual wages for citizens will rise 0. This includes workers on the lower end of the pay scale. DAPA helps support vibrant local economies by bolstering the spending power of immigrant consumers. This spurs our local economies and small businesses.
As immigrants participate in the economy more fully and move freely across the labor market, their ability to spend increases. DAPA means more tax revenue for the federal government. Legislative reform would generate even more economic benefits —in addition to being a sustainable, long-term solution.
If passed, S.
0コメント