Blog written by Xiying Feng, Colgate Class of 2022

“Immigrants Aren’t Taking Americans’ Jobs, New Study Finds,” The New York Times, Julia Preston, Sep 21, 2016

In response to the hotly-debated topic over immigration which has divided and polarized the United States, the article mainly addressed the issue of whether immigrants take jobs from Americans and lower their wages by working for less. A report^[1] assembling research from various leading economists and scholars showed that there is no negative effects of immigrants on overall wages and employment of native-born workers in the long run. It emphasized the positive impacts of the high-skilled immigrants, especially in technology and science, in the U.S economy. The increasing amount of highly-educated immigrants make innovations in emergent industries, help to create more job opportunities and, in turn, facilitates the overall economic growth.

In addition, the reports considered the question of immigrants’ burden on government budgets. The answer is more complicated. Initially, the first generation of immigrants costed governments more than they paid in tax mainly due to the educational expenses of the immigrant children. Then, with the improved educational and financial conditions, the second generations of those families began to contribute the government budget rather than posing a burden on it, and the contribution continuously increases in the successive generations.

Overall, the article claimed that immigrants are conducive to the U.S economic growth as they bring new ideas and create job opportunities; without them, the American labor force may even decline in the future.

---

^[1]National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/23550.