Report claims illegal immigrants have small impact on country's economy
Stephen Wall, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/02/2009 06:43:40 PM PST

Illegal immigrants drive down wages of low-skilled American workers, but they aren't a drain on the overall economy, according to a report released Wednesday.

Businesses and undocumented workers are the clear beneficiaries of the nation's immigration system. The losers are people at the bottom rung of the labor ladder who compete with illegal immigrants for low-wage jobs, according to the report by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.

When the pros and cons are tallied up, illegal immigration's overall impact on the economy is small, the report says.

"The fate of the U.S. economic future is not resting on the choices we make regarding illegal immigration," said Gordon Hanson, a University of California San Diego economist who wrote the report. "Thinking about reform, there would be clear benefits to having legal instead of illegal immigration. And there are costs associated with illegal immigration we should look for ways of ameliorating."

There are about 8 million illegal immigrants working in the country, but they account for only about 5 percent of the civilian labor force. The vast majority work in agriculture, construction, food processing, cleaning, maintenance and other low-end jobs, according to the report.

The country would benefit by having an immigration system that responds to economic conditions, Hanson said.

"What you want is an immigration policy that is flexible so you
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can lower immigration when the economy is tanking," he said. "Right now, illegal workers don't have an incentive to go home because stiff enforcement at the border makes it expensive for them to come back when the economy recovers."

There should be expanded legal channels of entry for low-skilled undocumented workers while maintaining meaningful enforcement of immigration laws at workplaces, the report says.

The fiscal impact of low-skilled immigration could be offset by charging a fee for legal entry or taxing employers, according to the report.

Raul Montano Calleja, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, said he just wants a permit to work legally in the United States.

"I'm very sad here because I'm all alone and I don't earn enough money to send to my family back home," said Calleja, who was standing in front of Home Depot in San Bernardino on Wednesday morning waiting to be offered a job.

Critics of the report say it downplays the harmful effects of illegal immigration on the economy as well as on the nation's education, environment and health care system.

With double-digit unemployment plaguing the country, "how can anybody with a straight face make the assertion that there is no net negative effect on the American economy?" said Rick Oltman, spokesman for Californians for Population Stabilization, which favors reduced immigration levels.

"Business is benefiting from cheap labor, I agree with that," he said. "But what do the rest of us get?"

Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington D.C., said the wages of young, less educated and U.S.-born minorities have dropped because of illegal immigration.

"Those three groups have done terribly in the labor market for the last 30 years," Camarota said. "As illegal immigration has grown, they've done worse."

Jose Zapata Calderon, a professor of sociology and Chicano studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, said that legalizing undocumented immigrants would increase productivity and lead to higher wages and benefits for all workers.

"Rather than spending so much on enforcement, there should be more emphasis on finding ways to legalize this workforce and pull them out of the shadows and really make them contributing members of society," Calderon said.

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