Immigrants and the labor force are two essential topics of study. First and foremost, greater research is needed on the boundaries and structure of labor markets. In recent decades, labor markets have seen significant transformations, resulting in a shifting environment for recent immigrants.
However, we lack a good understanding of the boundaries of urban labor markets and how metropolitan labor markets function. The role of businesses in metro labor markets, how they attract employees from inside and beyond urban regions, how they influence labor force participation, and even particulars like immigration bonds for employees are all topics that need more conceptual exploration and research.
Second, when it comes to studying labor markets, some problems include ethnic groups. Current research often uses pan-ethnic categories, such as Asian or Hispanic, without solid justification for integrating many distinct nationalities under a single category. In addition, researchers often use white non-Hispanics as a point of reference for making empirical comparisons with other groups.
The following are important research questions: What groups should be used in empirical study on immigration, and what is the appropriate reference group for such research? If, as is often said, labor markets are fundamentally segmented, what ethnic or country-of-origin aggregate is relevant for comparative purposes in this context?
Before we can even begin to answer these questions, we need to learn more about the impact of globalization and how immigrants are helping the country.
The Impact of Globalization on Labor
There are three compelling reasons you should be concerned about globalization. One thing to keep in mind is that more businesses realize that many jobs can be completed by telecommuters who are not physically present at the office. This practice is likely to become a permanent part of our economy.
Second, employees will discover that they are vying for employment with people from far away locations — even from countries beyond our own country’s boundaries.
Lastly and most importantly, although the United States labor market is one of our nation’s most heavily regulated markets, practically no laws regulate the employment of telecommuters who live outside the country. The most specific health care functions to outsource likely are finance and accounting. However, the number of prospective candidates is increasing.
Immigrants Are Helping the Economy
Research has shown that immigrants contribute to the employment and salaries of native employees in various ways, some of which are not readily apparent.
For example, immigrants tend to be particularly mobile workers, moving across the nation more quickly than their native-born counterparts. This is in response to labor shortages that emerge in local labor markets. This benefits native-born employees by filling in gaps that would otherwise make their employment difficult, as well as by reducing their productivity and lowering their earnings.
Immigration opponents often reference George Borjas, a Harvard economist who has claimed that “immigration increases labor market efficiency.” Furthermore, it turns out that a portion of this efficiency gain accrues to natives, indicating that current estimates of the advantages of immigration may be overlooking a potentially significant source of these gains.
The efficiency advantages for native-born employees, according to “back-of-the-envelope” calculations, may be worth “between $5 billion and $10 billion annually,” says Borjas, adding that “the estimates of the efficiency gain are near twice the measured benefits from immigration.”
Immigration also contributes to the development of specific businesses. For example, in the housing sector, slower growth rates in the native-born population have resulted in immigrant households accounting for an increasing proportion of the overall increase in occupied housing in the United States.
Immigrants are very enterprising, starting new businesses at a pace double that of native-born Americans and generating a disproportionately large number of new employment. Every one of these factors improves the number of job possibilities available to native-born American workers, raises salaries, and strengthens the middle class.
The creation of new jobs will be vitally essential to boosting recovery in communities throughout the United States as the country’s economy starts to reopen. According to research, immigrants typically complement rather than compete with American employees because they possess various skills and educational backgrounds.
The economy of the United States is dynamic rather than zero-sum: when one person gets a job, it does not imply that another person loses a job. In reality, immigrants contribute to the economy’s growth by filling labor shortages, buying products, and paying taxes. Productivity rises as the number of people working increases. Furthermore, when a growing number of Americans retire in the future, immigrants will be needed to cover job shortages and ensure the continued operation of the social safety net.
