Does Immigration Cost Jobs? VIDEO

FactCheck.org, a non-partisan project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, reports on the impact that immigration has on jobs for American citizens.

Their findings show that immigration, legal or illegal, doesn’t hurt American workers.

“…most economists and other experts say there’s little to support the claim. Study after study has shown that immigrants grow the economy, expanding demand for goods and services that the foreign-born workers and their families consume, and thereby creating jobs. There is even broad agreement among economists that while immigrants may push down wages for some, the overall effect is to increase average wages for American-born workers.”

“Among lawmakers and others who seek stricter immigration limits and stronger enforcement, we’ve noticed a common theme that may have particular resonance at a time when the unemployment rate remains stuck at close to 10 percent: that immigrants take American jobs. But most who have studied the topic say it’s not true. We’ll explain after we show you some of the arguments being made.”

They provide an example with this tv ad that ran in Arizona in April 2010. The implication of the ad is that immigrants take away Americans’ jobs: “with millions jobless, our government is still bringing in a million-and-a-half foreign workers a year to take American jobs.” The imagery, itself, even suggests this phenomenon effects whit–collar workers.
 

“The people pictured in the elevator in CFAW’s ad aren’t likely to be competing with immigrant labor for positions. There may be other reasons for an overhaul of current immigration policy. But the idea that foreign-born workers are stealing American jobs should be turned back at the border,” states FactCheck.

Not only do immigrants not take jobs away from Americans, they actually create jobs and grow the economy with their consumerism.

States FactCheck.org, “Immigrant workers “create almost as many” jobs as they occupy, “and maybe more,” said Madeleine Sumption, policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, which is funded by a range of foundations, corporations and international organizations. “They often create the jobs they work in.” In addition, “they buy things, and they make the economy bigger,” she told us. “

Even the Libertarian Cato Institute’s David Griswold has said, “The addition of low-skilled immigrants expands the size of the overall economy, creating higher-wage openings for managers, craftsmen, accountants, and the like. The net result is a greater financial reward and relatively more opportunities for those Americans who finish high school.”

Even the George W. Bush White House acknowledged the contribution that immigration makes to the American economy in its 2005 annual economic report.

The full FactCheck report can be seen here:
www.factcheck.org/2010/05/does-immigration-cost-jobs/