Wages, Jobs, and Poverty

For American workers, immigration is primarily a redistributive policy. Economic theory predicts that immigration will redistribute income by lowering the wages of competing American workers and increasing the wages of complementary American workers as well as profits for business owners and other “users” of immigrant labor.

- George J. Borjas, Professor of Economics and Social Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Unemployment/Underemployment Rates and Immigration

Content type

Publication Type

Author

The Impact of Biden’s Open Border on the American Workforce

House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.
of the Education and the Workforce Committee

Topics: Wages, Jobs, and Poverty

The Long-Term Decline in Labor Force Participation at the State Level, 1960 to 2023

Topics: Wages, Jobs, and Poverty

Working-Age, but Not Working

A look at the decades-long decline in labor force participation among the U.S.-born and its implications for immigration policy

Topics: Wages, Jobs, and Poverty

Why Getting Labor Market Dropouts to Work Is Difficult

But limiting immigration is a good place to start

Topics: Unemployment/Underemployment Rates and Immigration

What Happened When Immigration Fell?

Less skilled Americans got a raise.

Topics: Wages, Jobs, and Poverty

Evidence Shows Immigration Reduces Wages Significantly

Topics: Wages, Jobs, and Poverty

What Happened When Immigration Fell?

Less skilled Americans got a raise.

Topics: Wages, Jobs, and Poverty

Evidence shows immigration reduces wages significantly

Topics: Wages, Jobs, and Poverty

Illegal immigration hurts the poor — even if Dems deny it

Topics: Wages, Jobs, and Poverty

Less-Educated U.S.-Born Workers Do Better When Immigration Is Lower

Trends in median weekly earnings for immigrants and the native-born, 2012 to 2022

Topics: Wages, Jobs, and Poverty