Five myths about immigratiion
By Doris Meissner | Posted: Monday, May 3, 2010 12:00 am
Despite the fact that we are a nation of immigrants or perhaps because of it immigration continues to be one of America's most contentious topics. The new law in Arizona authorizing police to arrest individuals who cannot show documents proving that they are in the country legally has set off a fresh bout of acrimony. But as in the past, much of the debate is founded on mythology.
Myth Immigrants take jobs from American workers.
Although immigrants account for 12.5 percent of the U.S. population, they make up about 15 percent of the workforce. They are overrepresented among workers largely because the rest of our population is aging: Immigrants and their children have accounted for 58 percent of U.S. population growth since 1980. Low U.S. fertility rates and the upcoming retirement of the baby boomers mean immigration is likely to be the only source of growth in the prime age workforce workers ages 25 to 55 in the decades ahead.
Its true that an influx of new workers pushes wages down, but immigration also stimulates growth by creating new consumers, entrepreneurs and investors. As a result of this growth, economists estimate that wages for the vast majority of American workers are slightly higher than they would be without immigration. U.S. workers without a high school degree experience wage declines as a result of competition from immigrants, but these losses are modest, at just over 1 percent.
Myth Immigration is at an all-time high, and most new immigrants came illegally.
The historic high came more than a century ago, in 1890, when immigrants made up 14.8 percent off our population. Today, about two-thirds of immigrants are here legally, either as naturalized citizens or as lawful permanent residents. Of the approximately 10.8 million immigrants in the country illegally, about 40 percent arrived legally but overstayed their visas.
Although the unauthorized population includes more people from Mexico than from any other country, Mexicans are also the largest group of lawful immigrants.
Myth Today's immigrants are not integrating into American life like past waves did.
The integration of immigrants remains a hallmark of America's vitality as a society and a source of admiration abroad. While some people complain that today's immigrants are not integrating into U.S. society as quickly as previous newcomers did, the same charge was leveled at virtually every past wave of immigrants, including the Germans, Irish and Italians who arrived in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Today, as before, immigrant integration takes a generation or two. Learning English is one key driver of this process; the education and upward mobility of immigrants children is the other. On the first count, todays immigrants consistently seek English instruction in such large numbers that adult-education programs cannot meet the demand. On the second count, the No Child Left Behind Act has played a critical role in helping educate immigrant children.
Myth Cracking down on illegal border crossings will make us safer.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, we have dramatically strengthened our borders through the use of biometrics at ports of entry, secure cargo-shipment systems, intelligence gathering, integrated databases and increased international cooperation. The Border Patrol has nearly doubled in size in the past five years, to more than 20,000 agents. The Department of Homeland Security says it is on schedule to meet congressional mandates for southwestern border enforcement, including fence-building.
The seasoned enforcement officials I have spoken with all contend that if we provided enough visas to meet the economys demand for workers, agents would be free to clamp down on drug-trafficking, smuggling and cartel violence.
Myth Immigration reform cannot happen in an election year.
The politics of immigration can be explosive. However, all the significant immigration bills enacted in recent decades, one in 1980, others in 1986, 1990 and 1996, were passed in election years, often at the last minute and after fractious debates.
The to-do list for this Congress is substantial. But ruling out immigration reform would be a mistake. The outline for immigration legislation that Sen. Charles Schumer, D -N.Y., unveiled last week, together with the uproar over the Arizona law, may help convince lawmakers that theres no time like the present.
(Meissner served as commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1993 to 2000. This essay first appeared in the Washington Post.)
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