| Published: | December 2, 2009 |
| Author: | Jim Heskett |
In spite of, or perhaps because of, the world’s economic woes, debates regarding immigration policies continue. It has been nearly ten years since the topic of immigration was last addressed in this column. At that time booming economies such as that in the United States were experiencing increasing numbers of illegal immigrants. European countries were pondering policies regarding a flood of guest workers, some legal and some illegal.
These issues tend to arise at times of economic growth or stress. The differing rates at which countries emerge from the recent global economic crisis will determine future immigration “hot spots” attractive to potential immigrants. In the U.S., a country with an estimated 9 to 11 million undocumented immigrants, the issue promises to resurface in the coming months. And who knows? Given China’s growth, aging population, and potential shortages of labor, it may even become one of those hot spots.
Responses to an oversupply of potential immigrants have favored the talented over the low-skilled. Favored destination countries have been able to choose the “best” immigrants, whatever that means, and such practices have generally been condoned politically. But recent studies suggest that both legal and illegal immigration of low-skilled workers to the U.S. have effects that have been overlooked. They raise questions as to whether much the same is true elsewhere in the world and whether some countries have been pursuing immigration policies contrary to the interests of their citizens.
A study by Daniel Griswold of the Cato Institute of several pieces of research concludes, for example, that in the U.S. immigration has not expanded the size of the “underclass,” which he defines as people living “in households earning less than $25,000 a year or without a high school diploma.” Instead: (1) new waves of immigrants populate the “underclass,” enabling others to move up the income scale, (2) Hispanic immigrants play this role at present, enabling (or encouraging through education) all groups (including other minorities) to move out of poverty, (3) the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that male illegal immigrants aged 18 to 64 had a very high 92 percent labor force participation rate in 2004, (4) rates of incarceration for immigrants are lower than for native-born Americans, and (5) crime rates have declined in cities and regions of high immigrant concentrations, reflecting national trends since the early 1990s.
The Cato study concludes that there are “strong, positive arguments for pursuing a policy of expanding legal immigration for low-skilled workers.” Such a policy could, it is claimed, free up resources currently employed along borders to deter illegal immigration. According to a second Cato Institute study produced in Australia, such a strategy could even benefit from a “visa tax” that otherwise illegal immigrants would be able to pay in lieu of much higher “smugglers’ fees” for illegal entry.
Note that these findings are cited by an organization that advocates strongly for free trade and generally less government. But do the hypotheses they advance deserve closer examination? Are the findings peculiar to the United States, or do they have relevance for other parts of the world? Should immigration policies be more welcoming to low-skilled workers? What do you think?
To read more:
Peter B. Dixon and Maureen T. Rimmer, “Restriction or Legalization? Measuring the Economic Benefits of Immigration Reform,” Centre of Policy Studies at Monash University, Australia, published as Cato Institute Center for Trade Policy Studies Free Trade Bulletin No. 40, August 13, 2009.
Daniel T. Griswold, “As Immigrants Move In, Americans Move Up,” Cato Institute Center for Trade Policy Studies Free Trade Bulletin No. 38,” July 21, 2009. (The quote is from page two of a print-out of this document.)
Jeffrey S. Passel, “Unauthorized Migrants: Numbers and Characteristics,” Pew Hispanic Center, June 14, 2005, p. 25. 
Online office and collaboration suite maker Zoho has an interesting relationship with Google, arguably its main competitor for most of its products and, at first glance, the two companies are surprisingly friendly and warm towards each other. Recently, Zoho has launched integration with Google and Google Apps accounts, allowing users to register and log in with their existing credentials, and now the company is launching a full-blown integration between Zoho Apps and Google Docs. 
Advertising as a way of earning virtual currency credits, popular with many social gaming companies, is about to get a second chance after the practice came under heavy fire as a result of the less-than-ethical methods some advertisers employed. A new company that is now looking to fill in the gap and restore trust in the system, gWallet, has managed to raise $10.5 million from a couple of venture capital investment firms. 
![web1020[1]](http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/web10201.jpg "web1020[1]")
