The Wall Street Journal, February 9, 2016: Immigrants Push Down Wages for Low-Income Workers—But How Much?
“One of the reasons lower-income workers have taken such a hit over the past few decades is because of illegal immigration. But how much of a hit is a matter of great debate among economists. Harvard immigration specialist George Borjas finds that during the 1980s and 1990s, low-skilled immigration reduced the wages of U.S. born high-school dropouts by about 10%. His Harvard colleague and sometimes academic collaborator, Lawrence Katz, is more sanguine about the impact. Increased immigration has been ‘at most a small contributor to rising inequality among pre-existing U.S. residents and to poor income growth for low and moderate-income people,’ said Mr. Katz, a labor economist. Technological change, educational deficiencies, global trade and the decline of unions had a greater effect, he said.”