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Are foreign workers good for America?

By MICHAEL EASTERBROOK, Staff Writer

Ishmael Herrera was working hard for a pittance in Guatemala, and when he peered into his future, he saw only more of the same. So last year, he called it quits and came to North Carolina.
His gamble paid off. Herrera, 23, now takes home more than $400 a week working at a sock factory by night and at construction sites by day. Since the move, he has managed to bank about $3,500 -- almost enough to fulfill his dream of building a house back home.

"The work comes easy here," Herrera said after finishing his factory shift.

Success stories such as Herrera's have helped make the United States a magnet for low-skilled foreign workers, most of whom cross the border illegally to get here. (Herrera wouldn't discuss his immigration status.) Now, as the U.S. Senate looks to make it easier for more migrant laborers to enter, it is provoking tough questions about the potential effect on wages and unemployment for American workers.
Green Card or Visa?

There is a big difference between green cards and work visas.
A green card is proof of lawful permanent resident status and allows its holder to live and work indefinitely in the United States. A green-card holder may also, after a period of time, apply for citizenship.

A work visa lets a foreigner live and work in the United States for a limited time and often only for a particular employer. Someone with a work visa but not a green card cannot become a citizen.

HANS CHRISTIAN LINNARTZ, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY





There are no easy answers -- and apparently no definitive studies -- so arguments often rest on anecdote, emotion or economic theory. And even though at least one study has shown that the pool of foreign-born workers leads to lower wages for all, some economists say the benefits these workers bring outweigh any harm.

"By adding to U.S. consumption, they counterbalance any negative effect," said Tim Kane, an economist at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "The net is a bigger pie for everyone."

Over the coming months, senators will consider two bills that would create new temporary-visa programs for low-skilled workers. The bills come amid increasing pressure to overhaul an immigration system that many view as broken. Despite the U.S. business sector's hunger for cheap immigrant labor, there are few slots through which workers can come legally. As a result, the population of illegal immigrants has soared.

A bill co-sponsored by Sens. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, would let foreigners work in the country for three years with the possibility of extending their stay and eventually applying for permanent residency. It also would allow those already here illegally to apply for legal status. To become legal, they would have to clear security checks, show proficiency in English and pay back taxes plus a fine.

Opponents say the bill is weak on border enforcement and would reward unlawful behavior.

An alternative, proposed this month by Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Jon Kyl of Arizona, would allow guest workers to stay in the United States for three, two-year periods. They would have to return home for a year between each two-year work stint.

Illegal immigrants would be required to leave within five years, a provision their advocates claim would cause economic hardship and tear families apart. The bill also calls for more money to strengthen border enforcement.

On Tuesday, for the first time in three years, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on immigration, and the bills were discussed. Though President Bush has pushed for a new temporary-worker program, saying U.S. business needs immigrant labor, two top administration officials scheduled to speak were no-shows.

Committee chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said he would begin work on immigration reform after the August recess and hopes to get legislation passed this year.

Doug Heye, a spokesman for Sen. Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, said Burr "understands the importance" of temporary work visas but opposes giving legal status to illegal immigrants. Sen. Elizabeth Dole said she would examine all immigration reform proposals. "I do not want to prejudge what the best solution will look like before we have a full debate," said Dole, a North Carolina Republican, in a statement.

Even as lawmakers debate new visa programs, there's no question that foreign workers are already an important part of the U.S labor force.

Between 1996 and 2004, the population of foreign-born workers grew 49 percent -- to 21.4 million, according to the U.S. Labor Department. They include legal and illegal workers and foreign-born immigrants who have become U.S. citizens. Many came to escape failing economies back home. The surge was also fueled by U.S. demand for cheap labor.

About a quarter of the foreign-born workers held high-skilled jobs in management, professional and related occupations such as health care and education. Most of the others were in low-skilled jobs in industries such as farming, food service and construction. In all, foreign-born workers were 15 percent of the U.S. labor force last year.

As the ranks have swelled, debate has intensified about whether foreign workers take jobs from American workers and deflate wages.

In a report for the Center for Immigration Studies, economist George Borjas of Harvard University reported that an influx of immigrants in the 1980s and the 1990s reduced wages by 7.4 percent for high school dropouts and 3.6 percent for college graduates. The Washington-based center wants to lower immigration levels.

For the typical American worker, earnings dropped 3.7 percent, he found. When Borjas examined how earnings would have performed had there been no immigration from Mexico -- most of it low-skilled -- he found that wages for American workers would have fallen by 1.4 percent.

The center's research director, Steven Camarota, said Borjas' report shows that mass immigration harms U.S.-born workers, especially those with little education.

Michael Walden, an economist at N.C. State University who is familiar with Borjas' work, compared a downward push on wages to the effect one would see if the supply of apples increased at a farmers' market. More apples means prices drop.

"The simple point is that when you have a given number of jobs, and then an increase in the number of people available to do those jobs, what we'd expect to find is that those doing the hiring won't have to pay as much," Walden said. He added, however, that a large pool of foreign laborers willing to work for low wages also reduces costs for businesses, which can then sell goods and services at lower prices.

Who is here?

The U.S. government grants entry to foreign guest workers through more than a dozen temporary-visa programs. Those who qualify include athletes and entertainers, religious workers, nurses and those who can prove "extraordinary" abilities or achievements.

Only two of those programs, though, are for low-skilled workers. They are the H-2A, for agricultural workers; and the H-2B, for those in seasonal nonagricultural industries such as fisheries.

The cap for H-2B workers is 66,000 a year, and it's reached quickly. There is no cap for H-2A workers; 22,000 entered last year. Both programs allow workers to stay up to one year.

Every year, tens of thousands of people also come to the United States illegally -- most by crossing the southwest border. Current estimates put the illegal immigrant population at 11 million, with roughly 300,000 in North Carolina.

Because of their illegal status and fear of deportation, these workers are easy to exploit and usually afraid to press their employers for higher wages or better working conditions, said Marshall Fitz, associate director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which supports the McCain-Kennedy bill.

Foreign-born workers with legal status, though, would be more likely to stand up for themselves, he said. That would improve conditions for all workers, including Americans competing for the same jobs.

"Not legalizing or regulating this foreign labor flow has a much more deleterious effect on wages and working conditions for U.S. workers," Fitz said.

Although there may be costs involved with large-scale immigration, the benefits to the U.S. economy outweigh them, said Kane, the economist with the conservative Heritage Foundation.

The entry of high-skilled workers from abroad has helped the United States excel in areas such as science and technology. Low-skilled workers, meanwhile, spur consumption, accelerate job growth and boost productivity, Kane said.

"The people who are against immigration for economic reasons are making an emotional argument," he said. "America has immigrated monstrous populations of very poor, low-skilled labor, and in the end they really benefited the U.S. economy."

Over the years, immigrants have had little trouble finding work here.

The first wave was made up primarily of English Protestants followed by Germans and Irish Catholics, said Hiroshi Motomura, a law professor and immigration expert at UNC-Chapel Hill. The next wave, from southern and Eastern Europe, poured in through Ellis Island starting in the late 1890s.

The influx spiked again in the 1980s and 1990s, when the country absorbed nearly 20 million immigrants. Why? Experts point to troubled economies abroad and a 1986 amnesty that legalized people who had entered unlawfully, many of whom became U.S. citizens and invited family members to join them.

Groups pushing for curbs on immigration, though, claim that the recent newcomers have taken jobs at the expense of American workers.

In a study last year, Camarota found that between 2000 and 2004, the number of employed adult North Carolinians dropped by 190,000 to 3.5 million. During the period Camarota studied, the number of adult immigrants employed in North Carolina increased 193,000 to 410,000. Nationwide, the report said, unemployment was highest in economic sectors, such as construction and agriculture, with large numbers of illegal immigrants.

"There does seem to be some sort of displacement going on," he said. "The idea that America is desperately short of unskilled labor ... just doesn't make sense."

In the U.S. Senate, both sides will be trying to sort through the conflicting arguments in coming months. If Specter has his way, the debate could lead to the first comprehensive immigration reform in nearly a decade.