Business & the Workforce
Florida and Texas Need Immigrants to Rebuild
With Hurricanes Irma and Harvey ravaging much of Florida and Texas, the states will soon begin a substantial, years-long rebuilding process. The aftermath of previous natural disasters has shown that much of that rebuilding process was carried out by immigrants, many of whom were undocumented. But relying on foreign-born… Read More
Farmers Struggle to Find Labor, Threatening Americans’ Food Supply and Prices
America’s farmers have been acutely aware of the consequences of restrictive immigration policies for some time. When migration levels drop or restrictive policies drive migrants out of the state or country, farmers feel the pinch first, as their crops are left to rot in the fields due to the… Read More
Immigration a Boon to U.S. Economy Finds National Panel of Experts
mmigrants and their descendants make valuable contributions to the U.S. economy, according to a new report just released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine entitled, The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration. The exhaustive report is written by a nationally recognized panel of experts. It takes… Read More
Why Restricting Immigration Won’t Improve Work Opportunities for Natives
Serious economists know that immigrant and native-born workers cannot simply be swapped for one another like batteries. On average, immigrants and the native-born differ in terms of formal education, job experience, and English-language skills. As a result, immigrants and the native-born tend to “complement” each other rather than directly… Read More
Immigrant Workers Enhance and Expand the U.S. Economy
Over the years, more and more economists have come to the conclusion that immigrant workers “complement” the native-born majority of the labor force by bringing different sets of skills and different demographic profiles with them, both of which enhance and expand the economy as a whole. Immigration restrictionists, in… Read More
Immigration Action Provides Certain H-4 Spouses Work Authorization
As part of the package of executive actions announced in November 2014, the secretary of Homeland Security directed the immigration agencies to implement new policies and regulations intended to support U.S. high-skilled businesses and workers. Last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued the first of these… Read More
H-1B Visa Cap for Higher Skilled Workers Maxed Out in Record Time
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Monday that the allotment of H-1B visas for the 2015 fiscal year, known as the H-1B visa cap, has been filled—a week after filing began. The principal temporary visa for skilled professionals, the H-1B allows U.S. Read More
Broken H-1B Visa Program is Costing American Jobs
Compete America, an association of high-tech companies advocating for reform of immigration policies affecting higher-skilled workers, launched a job loss calculator today estimating the numbers of American jobs lost due to the lack of H-1B visas, the primary work visa for higher-skilled… Read More
Mayors Agree, Immigrants Make Their Cities More Economically Competitive
“Mayors are looking for a fix,” said Mayor Scott Smith of Mesa Arizona, President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “The status quo is not acceptable. It's as simple as that.” In a January 31 letter to Members of Congress, the United States Conference of Mayors urged expeditious action on immigration reform in 2014. As the letter stated: “Fixing our nation’s broken immigration laws is among the most important issues of interest to America’s mayors currently before the U.S. House of Representatives. We believe strongly that maintaining the status quo will further damage the economic, political and social structure of our cities and our country. As Mayors, we have a ground-level understanding of the pressing economic and moral imperatives that necessitate changing our national immigration system, and we urge the House to expeditiously bring legislation to the floor.” Read More
Senator Jeff Sessions Has Erroneously Blamed Immigrants for U.S. Income Inequality
Despite the formal end of the recession in 2009, unemployment in the United States remains high, wages are still stagnant, and economic indices of all kinds are looking grim. A crisis of this magnitude requires bold action by U.S. lawmakers to realign U.S. economic policies in ways that promote the growth of both jobs and wages. Economists across the political spectrum agree that immigration reform—including a pathway to legal status for unauthorized immigrants already living here—should be a central part of any such effort to boost the economy. Nevertheless, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) thinks he knows better. In his opinion, what we need to do to alleviate the nation’s economic woes is to derail immigration reform. Apparently, if we can hang on to our broken immigration system a little longer, there will be brighter days ahead for the U.S. economy. Read More
Make a contribution
Make a direct impact on the lives of immigrants.
