Immigrants not taking jobs from Americans

WASHINGTON — Big increases in immigration since 1990 have not hurt employment prospects for American workers, says a study released Thursday.

The report comes as Congress and much of the nation are debating immigration policy, a big issue in this fall's midterm congressional elections.

The Pew Hispanic Center found no evidence that increases in immigration led to higher unemployment among Americans, said Rakesh Kochhar, who authored the study.

Kochhar said other factors, such as economic growth, played a larger role than immigration in setting the job market for Americans.

Kochhar cautioned that immigration could affect job markets in some local areas, but the study found no national trends supporting a link. States with big increases in immigration were just as likely to have low unemployment as states with little immigration, he said.

"We cannot say with certainty that the growth in the foreign born population has either hurt or helped" the job market, Kochhar said.

The study, however, did not look at whether wages were affected by immigration. Advocates for tighter immigration policies argue

that immigrant workers depress wages for American workers, especially those with few skills and little education.

Immigration supporters argue that foreign workers often take jobs that Americans don't want and won't take.

The Pew Hispanic Center is a nonpartisan research organization that does not advocate policy positions. The center studied census data on the increase in immigrants from 1990 to 2000, and from 2000 to 2004, for each state. It matched those figures with state employment rates, unemployment rates and participation in the labor force among native-born Americans.

The U.S. had 28 million immigrants — legal and illegal — age 16 and older in 2000, an increase of 61 percent from 1990. By 2004, there were 32 million.

Among the study's findings:

• Twenty-two states had immigration levels above the national average from 1990 to 2000. Among them, 14 had employment rates for native-born workers above the national average in 2000, and eight had employment rates below the national average.

• Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia had immigration levels below the national average from 1990 to 2000. Among them, 16 had above average employment rates for native-born workers in 2000, and 13 had below average employment rates.