Impact of Illegal Immigration on the Wages and Employment Opportunities of Black Workers: A Briefing Before the United States Commission on Civil Rights Held in Washington, DC.

摘要

In the midst of public debate over immigration reform, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted to examine the possible effects of illegal immigration on particularly vulnerable segments of the U.S. working population, specifically low-skill black workers. Since the April 4, 2008 briefing, the severe economic downturn has affected workers in general, and--if unemployment rates are any indication--has had an even more severe impact on low-skill workers. To help air important aspects of the debate, the Commission invited experts who have published and spoken on this issue to weigh the relative effects of factors that influence black low-skill workers wages, job gains or losses and report their conclusions to the Commission. The speakers discussed factors that included the economic costs to this particular group, fiscal costs to taxpayers of social services for low-skill workers, competing skill levels of affected workers, the economic gains to the U.S. economy as a whole from flexible, low-cost labor, and what constitutes a fair comparison between legal and illegal workers and their job opportunities.