Description
This collection of six chapter-length essays explores the relationship between immigration, illegal immigration, public policy, and labor markets in the United States. They are technical studies drawing on economic, policy and legal knowledge. The essays are organized into two parts. In the first, they assess recent evidence on the impact of immigration on earnings and employment prospects, how illegal entry and status shape this impact, the shifting impact of immigrants over the course of business cycles, and immigration policy aimed at the needs of business. In the second section they assess immigration policy and patterns in light of the economic crisis. The two chapters of this short latter section focus on immigrant poverty rates over the course of the last two recessions and the changing distribution of skills immigrants have to offer. The editors are policy analysts at the Migration Policy Institute and the other contributors are economists affiliated with the Institute and American colleges. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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This volume, which brings together research by leading economists and labor market specialists, examines the role immigrants play in the U.S. workforce, how they fare in good and bad economic times, and the effects they have on native-born workers and the labor sectors in which they are engaged. The book traces the powerful economic forces at play in today's globalized world and includes policy prescriptions for making the American immigration system more responsive to labor market needs.Chapters examine employment outcomes for low-skilled, middle-skilled, and high-skilled workers; assess the economic effects of illegal immigration; trace immigrants' trajectories in the construction, health care, hospitality, and information technology sectors; and detail the impact of immigration in recession and economic expansion. Immigrants in a Changing Labor Market is the product of the Migration Policy Institute's (MPI) Labor Markets Initiative, which provides a comprehensive, policy-focused review of the role of immigration in the labor market. The initiative produces detailed policy recommendations on how the United States should rethink its immigration policy in the light of what is known about the economic impact of immigration—bearing in mind the current context of the economic crisis, growing income inequality, concerns about the effect of globalization on U.S. competitiveness, the competition for highly skilled migrants, and demographic and technological change.Contributors include: Jeanne Batalova (MPI), Michael Fix (MPI), Gordon H. Hanson (University of California–San Diego), Harry J. Holzer (Georgetown Public Policy Institute), Pia M. Orrenius (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas), Demetrios G. Papademetriou (MPI), Giovanni Peri (University of California–Davis), Madeleine Sumption (MPI), and Madeline Zavodny (Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA))
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