Immigration Issues

Immigration Laws Out of Sync With U.S. Needs

While high-tech companies are pleading for skilled workers, U.S. immigration laws are set up to favor applications from the less skilled relatives of present U.S. citizens, according to studies from the Rand Corp., the National Research Council and the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform.

In absolute numbers, legal immigration now is at an all-time high.

  • Of the 916,000 legal immigrants admitted into the U.S. in 1996, 65 percent gained entrance as relatives of citizens -- while only 13 percent were admitted on the basis of their skills.

  • Nearly 40 percent of immigrants have less than a high school education -- double the rate for the native-born population, according to 1990 figures.

  • Some 23 percent of immigrants have less than nine years of schooling -- compared with just 4 percent of American natives.

  • Over their lifetimes in the U.S., unskilled immigrants are likely to use more in public services -- like education and welfare benefits -- than they pay in taxes, according to the National Research Council.

On the other hand, educated immigrants are likely to contribute more to the country than they take from public coffers.

Also, because they are concentrated in a shrinking end of the labor market, unskilled immigrants put wage pressure on the lowest-wage workers already here, says Harvard economist George Borjas.

A Rand study examined the 9 million net new jobs created in California between 1960 and 1990. It found that three-fourths of the new jobs were filled by workers with at least some college education -- and almost all of the rest were filled by high school graduates. Meanwhile, the California economy is creating virtually no net new jobs for high school dropouts.

Source: David A. Price, "'New Economy' 1, Immigrants 0," Investor's Business Daily, April 7, 1998.

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