Report: Illegal immigrants resulted in lower wages for Arizonans


PHOENIX - Illegal immigrants cost Arizonans at least $1.4 billion in lower wages in 2005, according to a new report.

Harvard labor economist George Borjas’ analysis released this week is the latest academic attempt to quantify the impact of illegal immigrants on the Arizona economy.

Borjas’ report did not attempt to examine any possible economic benefits illegal immigrants may make to the state’s economy, such as lower prices for goods and services.

His report was prepared for Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas as part of a lawsuit challenging the state’s employer-sanctions law, which threatens to pull business licenses from companies that knowingly employ illegal immigrants.

"Dr. Borjas is one of the nation’s leading authorities on the effects of illegal immigration on the American economy," Thomas said. "His analysis demonstrates that enforcement of the employer-sanctions law will help to protect and potentially increase wages in Arizona, especially among lower-wage workers."

One of the key assumptions Borjas makes is that immigrants — both legal and illegal — expand the labor pool and inevitably lower wages for American-born workers in the same job field.

Borjas said the effects on labor pools ripple across cities and states.

The drop in Arizona’s wages was greatest for those who make the least, high-school dropouts and inexperienced workers, according to the report.

For dropouts, wages for legal workers were 4.7 percent lower than they would be without illegal immigrants. Borjas found that dropouts earned $20,300 in 2005, about $950 less than they otherwise would have been, he calculated.

By comparison, college-educated workers lost 0.9 percent, dropping their average income $590, to $65,100.

All the numbers are estimates and are probably worse than projected, Borjas said.

That’s because federal officials likely undercounted the number of illegal immigrants, which Borjas estimates as 49 percent of the foreign-born residents in Arizona based on figures from the Department of Homeland Security.

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Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com

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