Move that Bill Forward #4
Myth: Letting in More Temporary Visa Holders and Legalizing Current Illegal Immigrants Will Increase the Unemployment Rate
Response: Immigrants Make Americans More Productive and Do Not Increase the Unemployment Rate.
In a 2009 article titled Answering the Critics of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Stuart Anderson, an adjunct professor at the CATO institute (the same organization founded by Charles Koch) reported that “additional low-skilled immigration would not increase the unemployment rates of low-skilled U.S. workers.” The report went on to say that “With increases in low-skilled immigration, the U.S. economy would expand, creating more jobs in higher-skilled areas.”
University of Michigan, Flint, Professor, Mark Perry pointed out in a 2010 interview that, “there is no fixed pie or fixed jobs, so there is no way for immigrants to take away jobs from Americans.” The following excerpt from an article authored by economists, Richard Vedder, Lowell Galloway and Stephen Moore, elaborates further on Perry’s findings: “First, immigrants may expand the demand for goods and services through their consumption. Second, immigrants may contribute to output through the investment of savings they bring with them. Third, immigrants have high rates of entrepreneurship, which may lead to the creation of new jobs for U.S. workers in the low and high skilled ends of the labor market; thus, creating subsidiary job opportunities for Americans. Fifth, immigrants may contribute to economies of sale in production and the growth of markets.”
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs also found that “Despite increasing educational attainment across all levels of society, the U.S. workforce alone is not educated enough to sustain a globally competitive knowledge economy. Sixty to 70 percent of the students in American computer science and electrical engineering graduate programs are [international students] on temporary visas. One-quarter of the high-tech firms launched in the US between 1995 and 2005 were founded by immigrants. America also needs less-skilled immigrants. We need workers to staff American farms, provide home healthcare, and staff an ever-burgeoning low-skilled service sector.”
Affirming Lowell, Galloway, and More’s conclusions, the report went on to say, ” These newcomers don’t supplant US workers. They enhance American productivity and create jobs.”
READ MORE:
- Move That Bill Forward #1, click HERE.
- Move That Bill Forward #2, click HERE.
- Move That Bill Forward #3, click HERE.
This summer LUM is scheduled to unveil and open Immigration Clinic. In 2012, the LUM Board of Directors made the decision to offer immigration assistance citing its mission to “give witness to God’s saving love and prophetic power by loving neighbors, seeking justice, empowering the least among us.” Around the same time the Board issued a statement opposing policies separating children and expressing a desire to explore pathways for legal immigration and citizenship.
In lockstep with the sense of call expressed by the Board, LUM Campaign for Hoosier Families has made it a legislative priority to advocate for the legalization and a pathway to citizenship for the millions of immigrants. These individuals and families have come to the US with the same sense of purpose and desire for a better life much as the people who settled this country. Unfortunately though they enjoy none of the rights and protections that we consider as Americans to be unalienable. As you may know, the Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform last June, but thus far Republican House Members have refused to vote on the Senate bill or give the issue any type of consideration. If an immigration reform bill is not passed by the end of the year, which also constitutes the end of current congress, the whole process will have to start all over again.
This month and for the rest of the year as we prepare to open our Immigration Clinic, C4HF would encourage you to write or call our Congressman, Todd Rokita, and ask him to at least allow for immigration reform to come to the floor. You should also demand that he work with his colleagues to find a way to support legislation that would enable those who have invested through their labor and love for this country to be able to stay. To that end C4HF is going to provide a fact or story that you may use as a talking point when communicating with Congressman Rokita — or in conversations with friends and relatives. C4HF hopes that these facts will be both enlightening and empowering.
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