Tuesday
May192009
IPC: Immigrants Not The Source of Unemployment
By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service
Recent immigration is not leading to a rise in unemployment of natives in the United States. Such was the conclusion of two reports issued today by the Immigration Policy Center.
The current unemployment rate in April 2009 was 8.9%.
IPC demographer Rob Paral, demographer and Principal of Rob Paral & Associates, said:“There is this talk, allegation, discussion that somehow immigration is a cause of unemployment...(but) there is no direct link between the level off immigration in an area and its unemployment rate.”
The issue has become central in Congress’ scramble for tools to reduce unemployment in the midst of the economic crisis. Understanding the sources of unemployment would provide a better understanding of the strategy to use in order to address this issue.
Paral said: “We understand why it is a concern because we are at historically high levels of unemployment in the U.S and we are also a nation that receives a substantial numbers of immigrants, so people are wondering if there is some kind of connect.”
In order to conduct this study, Paral said, “Let’s look across the United States, at areas of high and low unemployment and let see if there’s any correlation between them and if whether there is a lot or little of recent immigrants in the region.”
Both Paral and Siciliano defined “recent immigrants” as those having moved to the U.S “in the past ten years.”
Paral said that “You have almost identical levels if unemployment in the Pacific states right now in the US as you do in the Midwest (10% unemployment) and yet the Pacific states have a much higher level of recent immigration amongst their workers and among their population as you do in the Midwest.”
Paral thus concluded that “What we are trying to show is that there s this total disconnect with whether you have high unemployment and low immigration.”
Siciliano added that “When you look at the kinds of workers that the immigrants are compared to the unemployed natives, you’re looking at two very different kinds of people in terms of skills and where they live etc...,” suggesting that immigrants are not in fact taking away jobs from the natives.
Recent immigration is not leading to a rise in unemployment of natives in the United States. Such was the conclusion of two reports issued today by the Immigration Policy Center.
The current unemployment rate in April 2009 was 8.9%.
IPC demographer Rob Paral, demographer and Principal of Rob Paral & Associates, said:“There is this talk, allegation, discussion that somehow immigration is a cause of unemployment...(but) there is no direct link between the level off immigration in an area and its unemployment rate.”
The issue has become central in Congress’ scramble for tools to reduce unemployment in the midst of the economic crisis. Understanding the sources of unemployment would provide a better understanding of the strategy to use in order to address this issue.
Paral said: “We understand why it is a concern because we are at historically high levels of unemployment in the U.S and we are also a nation that receives a substantial numbers of immigrants, so people are wondering if there is some kind of connect.”
In order to conduct this study, Paral said, “Let’s look across the United States, at areas of high and low unemployment and let see if there’s any correlation between them and if whether there is a lot or little of recent immigrants in the region.”
Both Paral and Siciliano defined “recent immigrants” as those having moved to the U.S “in the past ten years.”
Paral said that “You have almost identical levels if unemployment in the Pacific states right now in the US as you do in the Midwest (10% unemployment) and yet the Pacific states have a much higher level of recent immigration amongst their workers and among their population as you do in the Midwest.”
Paral thus concluded that “What we are trying to show is that there s this total disconnect with whether you have high unemployment and low immigration.”
Siciliano added that “When you look at the kinds of workers that the immigrants are compared to the unemployed natives, you’re looking at two very different kinds of people in terms of skills and where they live etc...,” suggesting that immigrants are not in fact taking away jobs from the natives.
tagged 
Dan Siciliano, IPC, Midwest, Pacific, Rob Paral, immigration, unemployment in Congress, News/Commentary
Dan Siciliano, IPC, Midwest, Pacific, Rob Paral, immigration, unemployment in Congress, News/Commentary
Reader Comments (5)
Why don't you tell this stupid argument to someone who doesn't work in Arizona in the construction field. They are NOT the only ones who will do those jobs since I was working before they flooded our state. There was plenty of work that paid a standard living wage and benefits. But these people show up and say, "We will work for cheaper, boss." They take the jobs and are glad to be paid like a slave because they have no brains, humanity, cleanliness, they live forteen of them in a one bedroom apartment and they brag about sending all their money home. That is a myth, it all goes to Budweiser and limes at the local Mercado. Their food makes most people sick because they don't know jack about hygiene. They have babies like locus and demolish the neighborhoods they live in. They come from a country where the government is corrupt and it is alright to steal from white people, besides all white people are rich, and we can all afford to keep replacing our things to support these scum. And they think if they get caught, they just pay the police. Criminal record? They buy a new set of ID and become someone else next week. They don't buy car insurance and drive like idiots, run into other drivers and then never show up for court. Those of us who are law abiding citizens who do pay for insurance to cover ourselves don't appreciate the police not doing what they can to track these people down. But the local loonies go to the police and the local news and complain that it is racial profiling. How is it racial profiling? Are we connected to another country on our border south of us? They are all from Mexico, Central America, South America and for every one that moves here to work 4 more come here to deal drugs and cause gang violence. If you are looking for sympathetic people don't look to Arizonans after we have gotten so many of our policemen shot in the past few years by the illegal gang members from Mexico. How is that racial profiling?
One thing I forgot, do you think the illegal aliens apply for unemployment? No so they aren't represented in the hundreds of thousands of illegals here, and please quit calling them immigrants. That is an insult to the people who immigrate here, not the border jumpers who are looking for something to steal or free government assitance through their women who lie and get food stamps and state paid health insurance although they never pay a single penny in taxes. So actually the unemployment rate for people who are still eligible for unemployment is about one third what those actually out of work. I have been to college with immigrants from Mexico, and I respect them greatly. I have nothing against anyone because they are from Mexico, it is the ones who committ a felony by coming here, and eat up our natural resources and steal our social security numbers and work here illegally without paying taxes like the rest of us. They also refuse to learn to speak English. We don't get the cream of the crop when they run the border, that is the people who are considered too stupid to work in Mexico at American sponsored factories and we stupid Americans feel sorry for them. About half of them end up in our jails which is another expense that Janet Napolitano tried to rectify with the Bush Administration when she sent Condoleeza Rice the bill for detaining them for years.
Oh, one last thing, that comment he made about “You have almost identical levels if unemployment in the Pacific states right now in the US as you do in the Midwest (10% unemployment)", we didn't have half the population of these people and they already had factories shutting down and high unemployment rates compared to the Pacific states previous to the meltdown in 2006. In 1981-1982 we had a reported 6000 people a day moving, not just passing through, to here from the midwest mostly because the auto plants shut down in Michigan. Maricopa County in Arizona was bragging about job statistics and jobs available here and didn't bother to tell them the jobs they bragged about were mostly farm labor. These people brought their families out here to get stranded and so you think we need illegal immigrants? We had enough of our own people migrating here from all over taking our jobs. Most people in Arizona now are from somewhere else. We need more people here like we need a hole in our heads. The state actually contemplated sending message out to warn people not to come here, which only one state in the U.S. had ever done before. Several people had a bumper sticker that said, "Welcome to Arizona, Now Go Home!"
One would think that a Demographer like Rob Paral would have more sense than to combine Illegal Immigrants with Legal Immigrants in a study and think that such a study would say anything informative about Illegal Immigrants. Yet this study does just that. Legal Immigration is controlled so that the most law abiding, most occupationally needed people come in as Legal Immigrants. These wonderful individuals outnumber Illegal Immigrants by 3.5 to 1 and so their statistics wash out any relevant conclusions about Illegal Immigrants with shear numbers. This does prove that our laws are not broken after all, except by those who are breaking them - Illegal Immigrants. Because if our laws that admit Legal Immigrants were causing significant unemployment they would definitely be not working. Having worked in a Demography Department at a major University it makes one wonder about Mr. Paral’s credentials, until one looks at his website. From the Rob Paral & Associates Website “Prior to establishing Rob Paral and Associates in 1998, Rob was Research Director at the Latino Institute in Chicago, and was the Senior Research Associate of the Washington, DC office of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. He has held research fellowships at the American Immigration Law Foundation, the Institute for Latino Studies at Notre Dame University, and Roosevelt University in Chicago.”
[...] For detailed information, please read: Rise in Unemployment not Linked to Immigrants [...]