According to WaPo, a new Pew Hispanic Center study finds that immigration has no affect on the ability for the native population to get jobs. The study used US Census Bureau data and compared "the influx of immigrants and unemployment rates in each state between 1990 and 2000, a period of robust economic growth, and between 2000 and 2004, a period of slower growth."
"We are simply looking for a pattern across 50 states, and we did not find one," Kochhar said. "We cannot say with certainty that growth in the foreign population has hurt or helped American jobs."
Immigration policy is a central issue in this fall's congressional elections. The report's findings appear to refute the idea -- often voiced by supporters of stricter immigration laws -- that foreign workers depress wages and take jobs from American workers, especially those with less education and fewer skills.
Though some refute the study's method as statistically invalid, the main argument from opponents is that immigrants typically move to economically booming parts of the country, where there are low unemployment numbers for all groups.
Pew refutes this claim, and the report shows
that nearly 25 percent of native-born workers live in states where rapid growth of the immigrant population occurred at the same time as above-average employment prospects. Only 15 percent of American workers live in high-immigration states with below-average employment prospects, the report found.
And the 60 percent of American workers living in states with slower immigrant growth did not consistently enjoy higher employment levels, the report showed.
More importantly, though the Center does note that "immigrants typically move to booming areas of the country with low unemployment rates," this is irrelevant to the findings of the study.
"It's unclear as to whether immigrant workers help to cause that boom, but they certainly haven't detracted from it," said Randy Capps, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute.
Source: Washington Post