On July 23, the Congressional Budget Office released a study of the role of immigrants in the US labor market. It notes that in 1994, one in ten members of the labor force were born outside the US; in 2009, it was one in seven.
In a July 16 commentary, Darrell West of the Brookings Institution recommends that our immigration policy do more to emphasize the attraction of foreigners with talent, skills and brains. Restricting the supply of H-1B visas, he says, hampers economic growth.
In a July 15 commentary, economists William Kerr and William Lincoln argue that immigration is extremely important to US technology development and commercialization. They point out that a very high percentage of scientists and engineers with advanced degrees are foreign born.
In a July 7 study, the Federation for American Immigration Reform estimated that illegal immigration costs U.S. taxpayers $113 billion per year, the bulk of which—$84.2 billion—is borne by state and local governments. Education for the children of illegal aliens was the largest single cost at $52 billion. On July 8, Tax Foundation Gerald Prante criticized this study for focusing on only one dimension of the immigration issue. It was also criticized by the Immigration Policy Center for failing to note that almost all of the children of illegal aliens being educated are native born.
A July study by the British Home Office provides a side-by-side comparison of the immigration policies in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Ireland, Denmark and Japan.
On June 30, the Department of Homeland Security released the annual report of the citizenship and immigration services ombudsman.
Also on June 30, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement service issued its strategic plan for 2010-2014.
On June 17, University of Chicago economist Gary Becker delivered a lecture on immigration at the Institute for Economic Affairs in London. He advocated using some sort of price mechanism to allocate work visas.
On June 16, the Congressional Research Service published a report on the role of the military in securing America’s borders.
A June study from the Migration Policy Institute examined the impact of immigration on the macroeconomy. It argues that immigration unambiguously raises growth in the long run, but has a negative effect on unemployment during economic downturns. It proposes that the number of work visas be expanded during economic expansions and reduced during contractions.
Also in June, the Cato Institute published a study arguing that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than the native born.
A May study, from the Institute for the Study of Labor concludes that employer sanctions are an ineffective method of controlling illegal immigration.
Bruce Bartlett is an American historian and columnist who focuses on the intersection between politics and economics. He blogs daily and writes a weekly column at The Fiscal Times. Read his most recent column here. Bartlett has written for Forbes Magazine and Creators Syndicate, and his work is informed by many years in government, including as a senior policy analyst in the Reagan White House. He is the author of seven books including the New York Times best-seller, Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (Doubleday, 2006).
