"How Immigrants Affect California Employment and Wages" is our site of the day

The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) has issued a report this week that should lay to rest the argument made by some that immigrants compete for jobs and lower the wages of U.S.-born workers. This comprehensive study, based on data between 1960 and 2004, has great significance for California policymakers as well as federal officials grappling with what should be done about immigration. In California, this issue has been identified in polls of the PPIC and the Field Survey as either the most important issue to voters or certainly in the top ones that are mentioned by them.

"How Immigrants Affect California Employment and Wages" by Giovanni Peri, an associate professor of economics at the University of California, Davis is a 18 page report that is available on line and should be read by all who care about the immigration issue.

Here are some of the findings in this report:

• There is no evidence that the inflow of immigrants over the period 1960–2004 worsened the employment opportunities of natives with similar education and experience.

• The study finds no association between the inflow of immigrants and the out-migration of natives within the same education and age group.

• Between 1990 and 2004 alone, new immigrants accounted for a 20 percent increase in the state’s total employment. Yet, rather than hurting job prospects for natives, the influx of immigrants increased the average real wages of native workers in California by 4 percent.

• The actual losers in the equation are prior immigrants, whose wages are hurt by the newcomers. In 2004, immigrants who had entered California before 1990 lost between 17 and 20 percent of their real wages due to the entry of new foreign-born workers.

This report goes beyond previous reports and rigorously analyzes data for this 44 year period. There is ample documentation for those who want to review sources and analyze the statistical methods and significance of the findings.

The PPIC is widely respected as a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving public policy in California through independent, objective, nonpartisan research on major economic, social, and political issues. The institute was established in 1994 with an endowment from William R. Hewlett.