According to a recent blog posting, where the bloggers put together myths and facts on immigration, the facts they quoted (and to which there are government links) resonated for me; I have been working and talking with high level high-tech executive immigrants or foreign-born professionals who bring incredible benefits to the US; however, we shouldn’t forget the immigrants who are taken for granted, especially here in California, because without them, many of our industries would not work as effortlessly or “cheaply” as they do now.
Let’s review our understanding of immigrants’ positions and what are facts versus myths that we often buy into.
1. The net benefit of immigration to the U.S.is nearly $10 billion annually.
As Alan Greenspan has pointed out, 70% of immigrants arrive in prime working age. That means we haven’t spent a penny on their education, yet they are transplanted into our workforce and will contribute $500 billion toward our social security system over the next 20 years.
(Source: Andrew Sum, Mykhaylo Trubskyy, Ishwar Khatiwada, et al., Immigrant Workers in the New England Labor Market: Implications for Workforce Development Policy, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University, Boston, Prepared for the New England Regional Office, the Employment and Training Administration, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Boston, Massachusetts, October 2002.
2. MYTH: IMMIGRANTS TAKE JOBS AWAY FROM AMERICANS…
FACT: This, the largest wave of immigration to the U.S. since the early 1900s coincided with our lowest national unemployment rate and fastest economic growth.
· In Arizona, unemployment is currently 3.7 percent; a figure that is considered full employment. In the back-braking fields of meat-packing and farm-work, owners say that even if they offer $50 per hour, they could not fill these jobs with American workers. We have depended on immigrant labor to fill these jobs for decades. As the crackdowns on immigrants spread, fields all over the west are lying fallow because the farmers know they will not be able to find workers to pick their crops. In places where raids on meat-packing plants have chased out immigrants employers find that citizen workers do not want the jobs, or they quit after a short period of time because the work is too grueling.
· Immigrant entrepreneurs create jobs for U.S. and foreign workers, and foreign-born students allow many U.S. graduate programs to keep their doors open. While there has been no comprehensive study done of immigrant-owned businesses, we have countless examples: in Silicon Valley, companies begun by Chinese and Indian immigrants generated more than $19.5 billion in sales and nearly 73,000 jobs in 2000.
(Source: Richard Vedder, Lowell Gallaway, and Stephen Moore, Immigration and Unemployment: New Evidence, Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, Arlington, VA (Mar. 1994), p. 13.)
3. MYTH: TODAY’S IMMIGRANTS ARE DIFFERENT THAN THOSE 100 YEARS AGO
FACT: The percentage of the U.S. population that is foreign-born now stands at 11.5%; in the early 20th century it was approximately 15%.
· Similar to accusations about today’s immigrants, those of 100 years ago initially often settled in mono-ethnic neighborhoods, spoke their native languages, and built up newspapers and businesses that catered to their fellow immigrants.
· They also experienced the same types of discrimination that today’s immigrants face, and integrated within American culture at a similar rate. We forget that the slur “wop” stood for “Without Papers,” and that “Paddy wagons” were so named because whenever there was crime, the police would go out and round up the “Paddys,” a slur for the Irish. Caucasians from Eastern Europe often anglicized their names so that they would not be profiled or suffer discrimination. This practice continues today–John Stewart’s real name is John Stewart Liebowitz.
· If we view history objectively, we remember that every new wave of immigrants has been met with suspicion and doubt and yet, ultimately, every past wave of immigrants has been vindicated and saluted.
(Source: Census Data: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/c2kprof00-us.pdf,http://www.census.gov/prod/
