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<div class="">January 31, 2013</div>
<h1>The Easy Problem</h1>
<h6 class="">By
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<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/davidbrooks/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by DAVID BROOKS"><span>DAVID BROOKS</span></a></span></h6>
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<p>
Over here in the department of punditry, we deal with a lot of hard
issues, ones on which the evidence is mixed and the options are all bad.
But the immigration issue is a blessed relief. On immigration, the
evidence is overwhelming; the best way forward is clear. </p>
<p>
The forlorn pundit doesn’t even have to make the humanitarian case that
immigration reform would be a great victory for human dignity. The cold
economic case by itself is so strong. </p>
<p>
Increased immigration would boost the U.S. economy. Immigrants are 30
percent more likely to start new businesses than native-born Americans,
according to a research summary by Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney of
The Hamilton Project. They are more likely to earn patents. A quarter
of new high-tech companies with more than $1 million in sales were also
founded by the foreign-born. </p>
<p>
A study by Madeline Zavodny, an economics professor at Agnes Scott
College, found that every additional 100 foreign-born workers in science
and technology fields is associated with 262 additional jobs for U.S.
natives. </p>
<p>
Thanks to the labor of low-skill immigrants, the cost of food, homes and
child care comes down, living standards rise and more women can afford
to work outside the home. </p>
<p>
The second clear finding is that many of the fears associated with
immigration, including illegal immigration, are overblown. </p>
<p>
Immigrants are doing a reasonable job of assimilating. Almost all of the
children of immigrants from Africa and Asia speak English and more than
90 percent of the children of Latin-American immigrants do. New
immigrants may start out disproportionately in construction and
food-service jobs, but, by second and third generation, their occupation
profiles are little different from the native-born. </p>
<p>
Immigrants, including illegal immigrants, are not socially disruptive.
They are much less likely to wind up in prison or in mental hospitals
than the native-born. </p>
<p>
Immigrants, both legal and illegal, do not drain the federal budget.
It’s true that states and localities have to spend money to educate them
when they are children, but, over the course of their lives, they pay
more in taxes than they receive in benefits. Furthermore, according to
the Congressional Budget Office, giving the current illegals a path to
citizenship would increase the taxes they pay by $48 billion and
increase the cost of public services they use by $23 billion, thereby
producing a surplus of $25 billion. </p>
<p>
It’s also looking more likely that immigrants don’t even lower the wages
for vulnerable, low-skill Americans. In 2007, the last time we had a
big immigration debate, economists were divided on this. One group,
using one methodology, found immigration had a negligible effect on
low-skill wages. Another group, using another methodology, found that
the wages of the low-skilled were indeed hurt. </p>
<p>
Since then, as Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute
explains, methodological advances suggest that the wages of most
low-skill workers are probably not significantly affected. It turns out
that immigrant workers are not always in direct competition with
native-born workers, and, in some cases, they push the native-born
upward into jobs that require more communication skills. </p>
<p>
Shierholz found that between 1994 and 2007 immigration increased overall
American wages by a small amount ($3.68 per week). It decreased the
wages of American male high school dropouts by a very small amount
($1.37 per week). And it increased the wages of female high school
dropouts by a larger amount ($4.19 per week). </p>
<p>
The argument that immigration hurts the less skilled is looking less persuasive. </p>
<p>
Because immigration is so attractive, most nations are competing to win
the global talent race. Over the past 10 years, 60 percent of nations
have moved to increase or maintain their immigrant intakes, especially
for high-skilled immigrants. </p>
<p>
The United States is losing this competition. We think of ourselves as
an immigrant nation, but the share of our population that is
foreign-born is now roughly on par with Germany and France and far below
the successful immigrant nations Canada and Australia. Furthermore, our
immigrants are much less skilled than the ones Canada and Australia let
in. As a result, the number of high-tech immigrant start-ups has
stagnated, according to the Kauffman Foundation, which studies
entrepreneurship. </p>
<p>
The first big point from all this is that given the likely gridlock on
tax reform and fiscal reform, immigration reform is our best chance to
increase America’s economic dynamism. We should normalize the illegals
who are here, create a legal system for low-skill workers and bend the
current reform proposals so they look more like the Canadian system,
which tailors the immigrant intake to regional labor markets and favors
high-skill workers. </p>
<p>
The second big conclusion is that if we can’t pass a law this year,
given the overwhelming strength of the evidence, then we really are a
pathetic basket case of a nation. </p>
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<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br><br><img src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><br>
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