The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration
Encyclopedia
The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration is a 1997 study on the demographic, economic, and fiscal consequences of immigration to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 by the National Research Council
United States National Research Council
The National Research Council of the USA is the working arm of the United States National Academies, carrying out most of the studies done in their names.The National Academies include:* National Academy of Sciences...

 (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

. The NRC report found that although immigrants, especially those from Latin America, were a net cost in terms of taxes paid versus social services received, overall immigration was a net economic gain due to an increase in pay for higher-skilled workers, lower prices for goods and services produced by immigrant labor, and more efficiency and lower wages for some owners of capital. The report also notes that although immigrant workers compete with domestic workers for some low skilled jobs, some immigrants specialize in activities that otherwise would not exist in an area, and thus are performing services that otherwise would not exist, and thus can be beneficial for all domestic residents. U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Business Owners: Hispanic-Owned Firms: 2002 indicated that the number of Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States grew to nearly 1.6 million in 2002. Those Hispanic-owned businesses generated about $222 billion in revenue. The report notes that the burden of poor immigrants is not born equally among states, and is most heavy in California.

On the poor end of the spectrum, the "New Americans" report found that low-skill low wage immigration does not, on aggregate, lower the wages of most domestic workers. The report also addresses the question of if immigration affects black Americans differently from the population in general: "While some have suspected that blacks suffer disproportionately from the inflow of low-skilled immigrants, none of the available evidence suggests that they have been particularly hard-hit on a national level. Some have lost their jobs, especially in places where immigrants are concentrated. But the majority of blacks live elsewhere, and their economic fortunes are tied to other factors."

Background

In 1990 the U.S. Congress appointed a bipartisan Commission on Immigration Reform to review the nation's policies and laws and to recommend changes. In turn, the commission in 1995 asked the National Research Council of the National Science Foundation to convene a panel of experts to assess the demographic, economic, and fiscal consequences of immigration.

The panel was asked to lay a scientific foundation for policymaking on some specific Immigration issues. http://newton.nap.edu/books/0309063566/html/1.html
The National Science Foundation panels charge was to address three key questions:
  1. What is the effect of immigration on the future size and composition of the U.S. population?
  2. What is the influence of immigration on the overall economy?
  3. What is the fiscal impact of immigration on federal, state, and local governments?

The NSF report by these 15+ researchers was issued after 3 years study and called “The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration” (1997) Edited by James P. Smith and Barry Edmonston, ISBN 0-309-06356-6. The book is available on line at http://newton.nap.edu/books/0309063566/html/R3.html.

Criticism

Negative Population Growth
Negative Population Growth
Negative Population Growth is a membership organization in the United States, founded in 1972.NPG works on overpopulation issues and advocates a gradual reduction in U.S. and world population. NPG believes the optimal population for the United States is 150 to 200 million and that the optimal...

, an organization that advocates a gradual reduction in U.S. and world population, has criticized the NPR/NSF panel for addressing only the economic effects of immigration mostly in terms of labor, prices and economic growth and should have included an environmental impact statement including a lot wider spectrum of specialists like environmentalists, fishery experts, biologists, educators, ethicists, labor experts etc. The report did find that the least skilled Americans have suffered the most from the competition with immigrants and that African Americans and legalized Hispanics with their lower average levels of education have been harmed the most, but it dismissed that as a serious problem because less than a majority of U.S. citizens are directly affected. The NSF panel did find that immigration may lower some prices (~0.1% on average) but lower prices require the assumption of generally lower wages for some or of higher investment levels in industry which is precisely what cheap wage immigration discourages. Many studies escape from this dilemma, if that is the word, by resorting to the familiar argument that immigrants fill "jobs American won't take." They ignored the fact that, nationwide, all the job categories: even farm workers, service industries, construction etc. are still filled largely by Americans. The so called shortage of labor to fill some of them and the reason that hourly U.S. real wages have been falling almost every year since 1975 is that desperate immigrants will work for wages that Americans don't want to work for. Even the NSF study seems to assume that increased GDP is a net good ignoring the fact that the lower wages and lower taxes collected from the typical illegal immigrant result in a lower GDP/capita. The reason that many like illegal immigrants is that they typically work cheaper than natives, have few legal rights, are pliant and much of their "real" costs can be spread out to anonymous taxpayers. All these effects of most immigration is not most Americans idea of "...Beneficial to U.S.". http://www.npg.org/forum_series/wrong_people.htm

"As long as there is a virtually unlimited supply of potential immigrants, the nation must make choices on how many to admit and who they should be." National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, 1997.

See also

  • Immigration to the United States
    Immigration to the United States
    Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants,...

  • Illegal immigration to the United States
    Illegal immigration to the United States
    An illegal immigrant in the United States is an alien who has entered the United States without government permission or stayed beyond the termination date of a visa....

  • Economic impact of immigration to Canada
    Economic impact of immigration to Canada
    The economic impact of immigration is an important topic in Canada. While the immigration rate has declined sharply from its peak early in the 20th century, Canada still holds the title of accepting more immigrants per capita than any other country....

  • Economic impact of illegal immigrants in the United States
    Economic impact of illegal immigrants in the United States
    The economic impact of illegal immigration to the United States is a matter of study and debate relating to the nation's economy and politics. Undocumented immigrants contribute both benefits and costs to the U.S. economy...

  • Economic results of migration
    Economic results of migration
    One of the most important dimension of migrations’ effects. Economic results of migrations are the most relevant to development.-Brain drain vs. brain gain:...

  • An Essay on the Principle of Population
    An Essay on the Principle of Population
    The book An Essay on the Principle of Population was first published anonymously in 1798 through J. Johnson . The author was soon identified as The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus. While it was not the first book on population, it has been acknowledged as the most influential work of its era...

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