Immigration

Immigrants and the labor market

Finding and Link (Enrico Marcelli (2005). Immigrants and the U.S. Labor Market. NACLA Report on the Americas, 38(5), 47. Retrieved November 13, 2007, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 803084851).

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=803084851&Fmt=3&clientId=10553&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Summary/Reconstruction

Targeting immigrants' behavior in the form of labor market competition in the US certainly is not new. But the legislative developments during the 1990s represented the first time in US history that immigrant use of welfare caused a major immigration policy change. Here, Marcelli discusses the economic effects of unauthorized immigration.

Your Name (Dustin Lehman)

Effect of Immigration on Wages

Finding and Link

Tamar Jacoby (2006). Immigration Nation. Foreign Affairs, 85(6), 50. Retrieved November 13, 2007, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1175304091).

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1175304091&Fmt=3&clientId=10553&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Summary/Reconmstruction Today, immigration is at or near the top of most voters' lists of problems facing the nation--one that, in many people's minds, outweighs every other threat save international terrorism. This shift has been driven in large part by politicians and the media. The U.S. immigration system has been broken for a long time, and little has changed dramatically in recent years. There is little doubt that the system needs fixing. But just how big a problem is immigration? Is it in fact a crisis that threatens the United States' security and identity as a nation? And does it, as today's bitter debate suggests, raise so many fundamental questions as to be all but unsolvable? As of this writing, Congress appears to be at an impasse, after nine months of intense debate and the passage of two major bills (one in each chamber) still unable to agree on a piece of legislation. Of all the economic consequences of immigration, the easiest to calculate is the fiscal effect--whether immigrants consume more in government benefits than they contribute in taxes.

Your Name (Dustin Lehman)

Immigration Policy in the United States

Link

CBO. February 2006. http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/70xx/doc7051/02-28-Immigration.pdf

Summary

This was a purely factual government summary of the history of the U.S. Immigration policy. It's good background information to skim and sets the stage for the issues we have now.

TJ

Why Illegal Immigration Doesn't Matter

Link

Malanga, Steven. Washington Post. "Why Illegal Immigration Doesn't Matter". 11/15/07. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/14/AR2007111402047.html

Summary

Malanga's argument is that we shouldn't be worried about illegals coming when we allow well over a million legal immigrants every year, and they are every bit as uneducated and unskilled as illegals. Other countries that attract immigrants have a much bigger emphasis on bringing in people with skills.