Immigration Reform Will Ease Economic Decline, Study Says
By Esther M. Gentile
New America Media
Jan 08, 2010
WASHINGTON--A new study
by a leading academic researcher contends that legalizing undocumented
workers through comprehensive immigration reform would yield $1.5
trillion to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over a 10-year period,
generate billions of dollars in additional tax revenue, increase wages
and consumer spending, and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The study, “Raising the
Floor for American Workers: The Economic Benefits of Comprehensive
Immigration Reform,” was conducted by Dr. Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda, associate
professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr.
Hinojosa presented the findings during a telephonic press conference
moderated by Angela Kelley, vice president for immigration policy and
advocacy at the Center for American Progress.
“Number one …
legalization produces an immediate economic impact, based on what we’ve
known happens in previous legalizations. The reason is because
legalization empowers workers immediately to become much more committed
and integrated into the economy," Hinojosa said.
The report analyzed the
economic impact of legislation passed in 1986. Even in an economic
downturn, the legalization of undocumented immigrants caused them to
move on to better-paying jobs, resulting in more spending and higher tax
revenue.
“Undocumented
immigrants … are in a sense a hidden economic engine that we have kept
repressed in this country” to the extent, Hinojosa said, that when “we
allow them to join the economic mainstream we see an immediate impact in
terms of wages and on productivity.”
By creating a temporary
worker program to allow for future flows of immigrants – something left
out of the 1986 legislation – comprehensive immigration reform would
have a magnified effect on the economy. “When we allow more low-skilled
immigrants to come in, it expands the overall economic pie, and creates
jobs up the ladder, like managers, accountants, and salespeople,” said
Daniel Griswold, director of the center for trade policy studies at the
Cato Institute.
The study also found
that enforcement-only policies have a quantifiable negative impact on
the U.S. economy beyond the cost of deportations. Unauthorized workers
have lower wages, which hurts the wages of American workers and drags
down economic growth, according to Heather Boushey, senior economist at
the Center for American Progress.
“The movement toward
full deportation in this country produces close to $2.6 trillion in
economic decline,” according to Hinojosa. “It really accelerates the
movement toward recession and depression, like we saw, by the way, in
the 1930s.”
“I think there are two
very important things about this report,“ noted Benjamin Johnson,
executive director of the American Immigration Council. “One certainly
is that it shines a spotlight on the potential for a very large impact
on our economy in a time when we need it. Even in Washington, D.C., $1.5
trillion is a lot of money. But the report also reminds us of where the
focus of an immigration reform effort ought to be, and that is about how
do we provide benefits to the American economy and to the American
worker.”
Legalizing undocumented
workers, the panelists said, would neither take jobs away from American
workers nor increase the number of unemployed.
“It cannot be in any
way justified to try to oppose immigration reform on the basis of an
economic argument,” Hinojosa concluded.
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