Title: Facts About Immigration and the U.S. Economy: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions | Economic Policy Institute
Headings: Facts About Immigration and the U.S. Economy
Facts About Immigration and the U.S. Economy
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Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
EPI FAQ
The immigrant population
1. How many immigrants reside in the United States?
2. How many unauthorized immigrants are in the United States?
3. Are most immigrants Hispanic/Latino?
Unauthorized immigrant population in the United States, by region of birth, 2008 (in thousands)
Immigrants and the economy
4. How much do immigrants contribute to the economy?
Immigrant and U.S.-born shares of total U.S. economic output
5. Are most immigrants employed in low-wage jobs?
6. Are most immigrants poor?
7. Do immigrants take jobs away from American workers?
8. Does immigration depress wages for American workers?
Impact of immigration on wages, by education level, 1994–2007
Unauthorized immigrants
9. Do unauthorized immigrants increase budget costs for states or the federal government?
10. Do unauthorized immigrants use public support programs like welfare, unemployment insurance, and food stamps?
11. Couldn’t we just deport the 11.7 million unauthorized immigrants?
12. Should we wait until the economy has recovered before regularizing the unauthorized immigrant population?
Unaccompanied migrant children
13. Why are tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children from Central America showing up on the Southwest U.S. border?
14. How many unaccompanied migrant children have arrived from Central America and Mexico in the past few years?
Unaccompanied alien children encountered, by fiscal year, fiscal 2009–2014*
15. Is the United States the only country that Salvadorians, Guatemalans, and Hondurans are fleeing to?
16. Does the arrival of unaccompanied migrant children mean the U.S. border is not secure?
17. What happens to these unaccompanied migrant children? Do we just send them home?
18. Is the U.S. immigration system equipped to handle the increased flow of unaccompanied migrant children?
Labor migration
19. Which legal routes are available to immigrants seeking to work in the United States?
20. What are the different classifications of employment-based (EB) immigrant visas?
21. What are the annual numerical limits on EB immigrant visas?
22. What are the different classifications of nonimmigrant visas that permit employment in the United States?
Description and typical occupations of common nonimmigrant visa classifications that authorize employment
23. What are the annual numerical limits and periods of stay that are allowed on the major nonimmigrant visa classifications that permit employment?
Annual numerical limit, number of visas granted in fiscal 2013, and period of stay for the most common nonimmigrant visa classifications that permit employment
24. Are employers required to pay temporary foreign workers the minimum wage?
25. Can temporary foreign workers switch employers?
26. Which regions and countries do permanent immigrant workers come from?
Number of permanent, employment-based immigrant visas granted, by immigrants’ region of birth, fiscal 2013
Number of permanent, employment-based immigrant visas granted, by immigrants’ country of birth, fiscal 2013
27. Which regions and countries do temporary foreign workers come from?
About the authors
Endnotes

Content: Importantly, this effect varies according to the broader economic environment. In particular, when the economy is growing and the labor market is adding jobs, new immigration creates enough jobs even in the short run (and even for the less-educated) to cause no harm to the net employment of native-born workers. But during economic downturns, things do not adjust as quickly. When the economy is weak, new immigration has a small negative impact in the short run on the employment of native-born workers. 12
The United States could benefit enormously from an immigration system that is more responsive to broader economic conditions. In our current immigration system, legal immigrant flows are essentially unresponsive to the business cycle. In particular, Congress has set a yearly limit on the number of new permanent and temporary immigrants who may enter the country legally in order to work, and these limits do not fluctuate based on the state of the labor market. For example, in 2010, the unemployment rate in construction was over 20 percent, but the Department of Labor nevertheless certified thousands of temporary foreign worker visas for the construction industry. An independent federal agency should be established to evaluate the U.S. labor market and make annual recommendations to Congress on the levels of permanent and temporary immigrant labor. This would better allow the U.S. economy to respond to the needs of employers during expansions while avoiding adding too many additional workers to the labor market when the unemployment rate is high.