Immigrants Reduce Unionization in the United States

Alex NowrastehIdentifying and analyzingarguments against increased legal immigration has been one of the core components of my job over the last decade. Most of those arguments areflimsy. The effect of immigrants on wages issmall and to the benefit of complementary native ‐​born American workers. Immigrants are lesscriminallyinclined than native ‐​born Americans. Immigrants and their descendantsassimilate quickly into American culture. The threat ofterrorist attacks carried about by foreigners on U.S. soil is real but also small and manageable. But one argument stands out to the point where I ’veco ‐​authoredacademicpapers,working papers, and a  book with Cambridge University Press addressing whether immigrants could reduce long run economic growth in the United States and “kill the goose that lays golden eggs.”The Golden Goose argument goes something like this: Immigrants typically come from poorer countries. There are several reasons why these destination countries may be poor, such as unproductive economic and political institutions, a  culture that is somehow inconducive to economic growth, endemiccorruption, violence, or other factors. If the immigrants to, say, the United States were to bring those anti ‐​growth characteristics with them from their home countries, then they could affect U.S. institutions, culture, corruption, violence, or other features of our rich society such that long‐​run growth is slowed in the United States, halted enti...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs