Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Immigration Math Is Not What You Would Think

The Economics of Immigration Are Not What You Think

With my colleague Jiwon Vellucci, we found, to start, that more than one-third of recent immigrants come from Europe and Asia, while less than 57 percent have come from Mexico and other Latin American nations.

That is such an interesting way to word it. I think it pretty much sums up any potential biases within the article.

Let's say Mr. Shapiro and I won the lottery together. Can't you just picture him saying...

Let's split the winnings fairly. I'll take less than 57% for myself. That will leave you with more than one-third!

Hey, just a thought.

The evidence regarding the impact of immigration on wages also turns up some surprising results. First, there’s simply no evidence that the recent waves of immigration have slowed the wage progress of average, native-born American workers.

Rumor has it that obscenely highly paid CEOs are making the "average" native-born American workers seem better off than they really are. Has that been factored into the analysis?

Critics blast Boy Scouts for CEO's $1 million compensation

"This is crazy. This is just crazy. First class tickets. Country clubs, Admirals Club? This is ridiculous,” said Ken Berger, president and CEO of Charity Navigator, which provides independent analysis of non-profit organizations.

How about "average" native-born American teenagers? Has that been factored in?

Are immigrants to blame for teen unemployment?

"The decline in teenage employment is very worrisome because a large body of research shows that those who do not work as teenagers often fail to develop the work habits necessary to function in the labor market later in life," said Steven Camarota, the director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies who co-authored a study about the issue.

Overall immigration – both legal and illegal – is a major factor in the steady decline in U.S.-born teenage participation in the summer workforce, according to a report issued Wednesday by Camarota's organization, an anti-illegal immigration think tank that believes in restricting legal immigration.

"A Drought of Summer Jobs, Immigration and the Long-term Decline in Employment among U.S. Born Teenagers" shows charts comparing various occupations and states. Before the current recession, the summer labor force participation of U.S.-born teens was decreasing, the report says.

2 comments:

GawainsGhost said...

Well, I live on the border, about 20 miles from Mexico. Most people have no idea how much this area has changed over the last 30 years.

When we first moved down here in 1969, it was largely rural and agricultural, miles and miles and miles of corn and wheat fields, citrus orchards, etc. In fact, when I was in the Boy Scouts and we wanted to go to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, the only way we could afford it was for the troop to pick watermelons for an entire summer.

Now, that was grueling work. But today it would be impossible for a scout troop to pay its way to Philmont by doing that job, mainly because this area has become much less agricultural but also because virtually all of the work now goes to migrants from Mexico.

Over the last 15 years, there has been a lot of growth and development, mostly in commercial businesses like malls and outlet stores. A lot of people from Northern Mexico come here to shop, and cross-border commerce has increased dramatically.

But that comes at a price. The other day this was the subject on a local radio talk show. This lady, a Hispanic American, called in to complain that her teenage son could not get a minimum wage job anywhere, because all of the positions are taken by Mexican nationals who come here to work then go home to Mexico. She had to send him to San Antonio, 300 miles north, to live with relatives just so he could find a summer job.

So all this talk about immigration and free trade (NAFTA) being a boon the the US economy is bunk. What's really happening is jobs for Americans are disappearing, and those that remain are seeing wages depressed due to the influx of cheap foreign labor.

Stagflationary Mark said...

GawainsGhost,

"So all this talk about immigration and free trade (NAFTA) being a boon the the US economy is bunk."

I hear that. I'm not at all comforted by our massive trade deficit and high unemployment rate. All this talk of Chinese currency manipulation is just a side show to me. The truth of the matter is that billions of people will work for far less than we will. It's that simple.