Immigrant workers | Boosting The Incomes Of Less-Educated Native Workers

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The Economic Impact of Immigrant-Related Local Ordinances “… provides the first comparative look at the average economic effects of how restrictive versus non-restrictive immigration-related city ordinances affect a city’s business environment” writes the Americas Society.

“Since 2005, in a climate of increasing concern and urgency about the nation’s current and future migratory flows, cities and states around the country have been spurred to take action and pass ordinances or laws that respond to local immigration dynamics.”

“The majority of legislative action—and the policies receiving the bulk of public attention— focuses on restrictive policies, which, at the city level, generally include four types of ordinances: business verification of the immigration status of employees; requirements that landlords verify the immigration status of tenants; 287(g) agreements that give local officials immigration enforcement powers; and English-only. At the state level, restrictive policies extend to cover health care, education, transportation, and other areas under shared state jurisdiction. Still, although fewer in number, other cities and states have opted for non-restrictive policies toward the undocumented immigrant population. These localities, referred to as sanctuary cities, provide access to public services and bar local law enforcement and city employees from investigating the legal status of residents.”

How do immigration-related policies “affect the local business environment” ? asks Americas Society.

“Among the four types of restrictive ordinances examined, employment-related measures have the greatest effect on the decrease in the number of employees in restrictive cities.”

“… Restrictive ordinances have a negative impact on the number of employees in a city, but not on the number of businesses. This does not definitively demonstrate that restrictive immigration ordinances do not ultimately lead to business closure. Rather, the results may be a function of the lag between an ordinance’s passage and its full economic impact.”

“In communities with a large foreign-born population, immigrants tend to specialize in manual-labor occupations. We might infer that these immigrant labourers are squeezing less educated native-born workers out of the labor market entirely. However, research indicates that nativeborn workers respond to this potential challenge by specializing in industries in which they have a comparative advantage, namely, those that require communication and language skills. Jobs in these industries tend to provide higher wages than manual labor; thus, immigrant workers who work in lower-wage jobs can actually boost the incomes of many less-educated native workers and increase a community’s aggregate productivity.”

“Immigrant labor not only performs certain jobs that otherwise would be hard to fill but, more importantly, can create positive externalities for lower-educated native-born workers. By encouraging these U.S.-born workers to enter industries in which they clearly have a competitive advantage, immigrant labor supports more profitable, skilled and desirable jobs for native-born workers within communities.”

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