We are in the worst recession since the Great Depression, yet legal immigration continues at high levels and is adding to unemployment, because immigration policy remains on autopilot. Our economy has been shedding jobs for almost two years, yet permanent immigrants in fiscal 2008 (the last year for which I have data, DHS Yearbook) numbered 1.1 million. That is a near-record-high level of legal immigration and 76% of the new immigrants were at least 20 years old. Camarota and Jensenius (2009) report that we issued visas in fiscal 2008 for 130,183 H-1B temporary workers, most of whom have at least a bachelor’s degree. There were 84,078 L visas issued for temporary workers as intercompany transfers. To qualify for an L visa an employee must have worked for the company only 1 year continuously sometime in the last 3 years. Because numbers are completely uncontrolled, the L visa has become a convenient way for multinational companies to beat the H-1B quotas. L visas can be extended for 5 to 7 years, and H-1 visas for 6 years.
We also admitted 94,304 H-2B seasonal non-agricultural workers in 2008. H-2B workers take what used to be summer jobs for high school and college students, but this year many of them could have provided a few months income for unemployed Americans trying to support a family.
These numbers of immigrant workers are significant relative to the unemployment challenge. So far the recession has cost 8 million jobs (The Economist) and the number is still increasing. The White House reported in September that the stimulus package has, so far, created or saved 1 million jobs, and the total will be only 3.5 million (Politico, 9/11/09). Larry Summers, Director of the National Economic Council, said, "The level of unemployment is unacceptably high, and will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years." As usual, the impact of the recession is greatest for the most vulnerable workers, and particularly for less skilled non-immigrants. Jensenius and Camarota (2009) report Census Bureau statistics for June showing an unemployment rate for non-immigrant Americans with less than a high school education of 20.8%, whereas it was 12.8% for immigrants with the same education. Unemployment was worse for minority non-immigrants. For non-immigrant black workers with less than a high school education, the unemployment rate was 27.5% and for Hispanics 22.6%. There are 10 million non-immigrant American workers without a high school diploma, 8% of the non-immigrant workforce (Camarota, 2006), and immigration policies that give preference to extended family bring in large numbers of unskilled legal immigrants. Continued business demand for H-1B and L visas, during a recession that has produced high unemployment in almost all occupations, will result in continued unemployment or displacement of skilled American workers.
With current high unemployment, continued high rates of immigration are contributing to unemployment. The experience of the last recession is also cause for concern. It suggests that the loss of jobs for American workers will be long term, and permanent for many.
Camarota (2004) reported data from the Census Bureau for the period 2000 to 2004, which included the last recession and recovery. During the recovery, often characterized as jobless, there was actually significant job creation, but the jobs were allocated in surprising ways. The number of adult immigrants holding jobs increased, from 2000 to 2004, by 2.3 million, and Camarota ( 2004) estimates that half of those were illegal immigrants. However, in the same period the number of non-immigrant Americans holding jobs fell by 0.5 million, the number of unemployed non-immigrant Americans increased by 2.3 million, and an additional 4 million non-immigrants left the work force, i.e. they were no longer employed or seeking employment. During the recession there were large job losses among non-immigrants, and very few for immigrants, however, unemployment increased even for immigrants, because immigration rates remained high, as in the current recession. As the economy recovered, a large percentage of the jobs generated were filled by immigrants rather than by unemployed non-immigrants. Employers used the recession to get rid of their well-paid American workforce and in the recovery they replaced them with a cheaper immigrant workforce.
Update [2010-4-5 17:14:34 by IowaPopulist]:
REFERENCES
Department of Homeland Security. Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, 2008. http://www.dhs.gov/...
Camarota, S.A. and Jensenius, K., May, 2009. Trends in Immigrant and Native Employment. Center for Immigration Studies. http://cis.org/...
The Economist, 10/10/2009. The economy’s stumble, p. 32.
Politico, 9/11/09, Summers: High unemployment for years. http://www.politico.com/...
Jensenius, K. and Camarota, S.A., August,2009. Worse Than It Seems. Center for Immigration Studies. http://cis.org/...
Camarota, Steven A., 2006. Immigration’s Impact on American Workers. Testimony Prepared for the House Judiciary Committee, August 29, 2006. http://www.cis.org/...
Camarota, S.A., 2004. A Jobless Recover? Immigrant Gains and Native Losses. Center for Immigration Studies http://www.cis.org/...