Immigration reform could boost the U.S. labor market
Immigrants with advanced degrees from U.S. universities working in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are creating jobs in the U.S. (Photo: Smartplanet.com)
By MARIANA CRISTANCHO-AHN
Channel: Economics, Immigration
Did you know that 25% of the high-tech companies created in the U.S. from 1995 to 2005 were founded by at least one immigrant, and that nearly 40% of the 2010 Fortune 500 companies were started by an immigrant or the child of an immigrant?
These are some of the findings regarding the impact of immigration on the U.S. economy - particularly in the labor market - that are analyzed in a study published today by the American Enterprise Institute and the Partnership for a New American Economy.
The study named “Immigration and American Jobs” used data from 2000 to 2010 from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS).
“A lot of Americans believe that immigrants take away jobs from them and, on average, that’s not true,” said Madeline Zavodny, author of the study and professor of economics at Agnes Scott College in a phone interview with Univision News. “There are certain groups of immigrants that are creating jobs.”
One such group is immigrants with advanced degrees from U.S. universities working in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics - referred to in the study as “STEM fields.”
The study found that immigrants with advanced degrees are even creating jobs for U.S. natives. Data comparing U.S. employment figures from 2000 to 2007 showed that an additional 100 jobs for immigrants in STEM fields lead to the creation of an additional 262 jobs for U.S. natives.
Other key findings of the study show that skilled and less skilled temporary foreign workers boost U.S. employment. The study found that an additional 183 jobs for U.S. natives are generated for every 100 additional approved H-1B workers and that companies and cities with more H-1B workers have more patents than their peers.
The data also shows that highly educated immigrants also pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits. For example, in 2009, an average immigrant adult with an advanced degree paid nearly $22,500 in federal, state, and Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA, or Social Security and Medicare) taxes, and received one-tenth that size of government benefits like welfare, unemployment, and Medicaid.
Zavodny’s research also includes specific recommendations for policy makers who are looking for ways to strengthen the U.S. labor market.
The recommendations include:
-Prioritize immigration by workers in STEM fields who hold advanced degrees from U.S. institutions.
-Shift U.S. immigration policy’s focus to economic growth by increasing the number of green cards for highly skilled workers.
-Expand temporary-worker programs for both skilled and less-skilled foreign workers.
Zavodny said she hopes lawmakers will implement such recommendations and also warns of the cost the U.S. economy could incur if they fail to act on the immigration front and prevent the brain-drain of foreign-born talent.
“Graduates of top U.S. universities look elsewhere when they have no easy way to stay and work in the United States,” she wrote in the study. “Entrepreneurial immigrants from China and India, many with years of work experience at American companies, are returning home because of outdated, inflexible U.S. immigration policies coupled with improving economic prospects at home.”
