CIS on the Jobs Crunch
03/22/2011
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Steven Camarota writes at the Center for Immigration Studies:

Excerpt: Despite an abysmal jobs picture, Census Bureau data collected in 2010 show that the decade just completed may have been the highest for immigration in our nation’s history, with more than 13 million new immigrants (legal and illegal) arriving. What happened during the last decade in terms of employment of native-born Americans is astounding. Even though native-born Americans accounted for the overwhelming majority of growth in the adult working-age population (18 to 65), all of the net gain in employment went to immigrants. Something like that might not be too surprising over a short period like a quarter or even a year. But it is remarkable that over a 10-year period (2000 to 2010) all the net increase in jobs went to immigrants.

I've covered this ground before a little differently. I think we need to ask ourselves just what is happening to the American born workforce-and the American people as a whole.

Camarota makes the point that immigrants often benefit greatly from immigration. What he fails to look at is just how much wealthy owners of property in America also benefit-which I think is far greater than any benefit to immigrants themselves. We also need to look carefully at the impact of a high immigration/high borrowing US economy on the global economy as a whole-and ask ourselves whether massive US immigration is really a benefit or a problem for the world as a whole.

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