Why legal aliens don't drag down the wages of the native-born

Published on Wed, Jan 13, 2010

IF CONGRESS has any sense, it will pass immigration reform this year. That's the topic of this week's column.

A new report from the Centre for American Progress, an Obamaphile think-tank, finds that comprehensive immigration reform would add $1.5 trillion to America's GDP over ten years.

Not everything that raises GDP is a good idea. Reihan Salam, a conservative writer, pointed out to me yesterday that annexing Canada would raise GDP by a lot. But it would have serious downsides, such as Americans having to find out where Canada is.

Published in the The Economist | Read Article