Jon E. Dougherty, NewsMax.com
Monday, Nov. 10, 2003
Since 2000, more than 2.3 million immigrants, many of them illegal flooded into the U.S., a Washington-based think tank reported this past week.
Despite months of recession and claims by the federal government of improved border security as a result of 9/11, immigration to the U.S. has not slowed, according to an immigration reform group's analysis of Census Bureau data.
The Center for Immigration Studies says based on its research immigration may have slowed temporarily following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. But, CIS researchers found, "analysis of unpublished 2003 Census Bureau data by the Center for Immigration Studies shows that new legal and illegal immigration remains at record-setting levels," said the report.
"Immigration is a complex process driven by a variety of factors, many of which have little to do with prevailing economic conditions in the United States," said Steven Camarota, CIS director of research and the report's author.
"This does not mean that economic factors are irrelevant," he said. "However, the continued high rates of immigration, nationally and to specific states hard hit by the recession, show that immigration is driven mostly by the higher standard of living in the United States compared to immigrant-sending countries, not by demand for labor in this country."
In the report's other findings:
While the number of foreign-born adults holding jobs increased since 2000, the number of out-of-work immigrants also increased by 600,000. Unemployment rates for foreign-born workers rose from 4.9 to 7.4 percent.
The very rapid growth of immigration is what makes it possible for both the employed and unemployed foreign-born figures to rise.
As a share of the total U.S. population, the foreign-born now account for one in every eight persons – the highest percentage in more than 80 years.
Sensitive to Economic Conditions
In the past, said analysts, waves of immigration were "very sensitive to economic conditions" in the U.S. "This is primarily because the disparity in living standards between the United States and immigrant-sending countries today is much larger than it was in the past," said the report.
Today's immigration trends, however, suggest the opposite, CIS said.
"The current economic slowdown represents a real-world test of the widespread contention that immigration is primarily driven by the labor needs of the United States," said the report. "The fact that immigration has not slowed significantly since 2000, even though unemployment has increased significantly, indicates that immigration levels do not simply reflect demand for labor in this country."
The report went on to say immigration is "a complex process" dependent on "a variety of factors," many which "have little to do with the job market in the United States."
"It is America's higher standard of living that drives most immigration, and the disparity in living standards does not disappear during downturns in the business cycle," said the report.
The report also said the nation's foreign-born population has reached more than 33.5 million, with 1.4 to 1.5 million legal and illegal immigrants continuing to settle in the United States each year.
Considering those numbers, "the impact on American society is clearly enormous," said the report.
"The available evidence suggests that whatever may have been the case in the past, the current flow of immigrants into the United States is largely unconnected to economic conditions here," it says.
"Unemployment and non-work have risen throughout the country and among immigrants, but the number of new immigrants (legal and illegal) entering the country continues to match the pace of the 1990s."
