On September 7, Eurostat announced that 6.4 percent of those living in the European Union were foreign born. The foreign born population was highest in Luxembourg, where it constitutes 44 percent of the total population.
In a September 1 study, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that the flow of illegal immigrants has fallen sharply from 850,000/year in the early 2000s to 550,000 in the mid-2000s to about 300,000 today.
Also on September 1, Daryl West of the Brookings Institution published a commentary dispelling seven myths about illegal immigrants, such as the myths that they don’t pay taxes and are seldom deported.
And on September 1, the Center for American Progress published a study of assimilation by immigrants. It finds that they continue to assimilate at a rapid rate by learning English and adopting American culture.
On August 30, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco published a study of the economic consequences of immigration based on state data. It found scant evidence that immigrants displace employment by the native-born and strong evidence that states with high levels of immigration grew faster than those with low levels.
An August 11 report from Pew estimated that illegal aliens make up four percent of the population. However, eight percent of births are to illegal alien parents.
On August 4, legal scholars Huyen Pham and Van Pham posted a paper that empirically examined local laws designed to reduce illegal immigration. They find that such laws reduce total employment in the jurisdictions where they apply. The effect applies both to authorized and unauthorized workers.
In August, the Center for Immigration Studies published a study of birthright citizenship. It found that very few major countries automatically grant citizenship to everyone born on their soil.
I last posted items on this topic on July 26.
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).
