Katrina vanden Heuvel: A Profile of Immigration

from The Nation:



BLOG | Posted 11/26/2007 @ 3:42pm
A Profile of Immigration
Katrina vanden Heuvel


As the lead editorial in The Nation noted last week, the recent maelstrom surrounding Governor Eliot Spitzer's proposal to issue driver licenses to undocumented immigrants revealed the fear-mongering and racism that too often characterizes the so-called "immigration debate." It illustrated once again the desperate need to overcome the demagoguing and engage in an informed conversation – all the more challenging as people feel increasing economic anxiety and dislocation.

That's why a report released today by the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) – Working for a Better Life: A Profile of Immigrants in the New York Economy – is such a critical contribution at this moment. FPI does rigorous analysis to promote public policies that create a strong economy in which prosperity is broadly shared by all New Yorkers. This report reveals that immigrants – making up 21 percent of the state's residents – added $229 billion to the New York State economy in 2006, representing 22.4 percent of the state's Gross Domestic Product.

"These figures should wipe away any impression that immigrants are holding the New York economy back," said David Dyssegaard Kallick, senior fellow of the Fiscal Policy Institute and principal author of the report. "In fact, immigrants are a central component of New York's economic growth." And Kallick told me, "The debate around immigration has gotten so overheated that it's become difficult to distinguish myth and hyperbole from simple reality…."

According to the report, New York City immigrants make up 37 percent of the population and 46 percent of the labor force. They are more likely than U.S.-born residents to live in families in the middle-income brackets. Immigrants represent 25 percent of CEOs who live in New York City, half of accountants, one-third of office clerks, one-third of receptionists, and one-third of building cleaners. In sector after sector, immigrants are found in the top, middle, and bottom rungs of the economic ladder.

In the downstate suburbs, 18 percent of all residents are foreign-born, with immigrants making up 23 percent of the labor force. More immigrants work as registered nurses than in any other occupation. 41 percent of physicians and surgeons in the downstate suburbs are foreign-born, as are 28 percent of college and university professors, 22 percent of accountants and auditors, and 19 percent of financial managers. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15&pid=254362

or does this piece repeatedly mix "illegal immigrants"/undocumented workers with (legal) immigrants? If so, it's a dishonest tactic (and one I've generally seen used only by conservatives).

As I've written before, I agree there is plenty of racism and xenophobia fueling the debate on the right. But I also believe that flooding the market with undocumented workers to be exploited with slave wages, no benefits and questionable working conditions (which creates a de facto maximum wage for low skill positions) *is* a real problem.

The answer is not to build some giant wall or deportation. The answer is to crack down on employers looking to exploit ALL workers to increase their profits. If we do that (attack the demand) the supply will take care of itself, just as it did prior to Reagan when there was less than 2 million undocumented workers compared to over 12 million or so today.

And if we do crack down on employers and manage to find ourselves with a labor shortage, the answer is simple: allow more immigrants to become US citizens.