Labor Pool: Foreigners Wanted
Two new studies say immigrants can boost the economy
Over the past month, two new reports have called attention to the importance of immigrant workers in the state, and in Central Massachusetts in particular.The first, by the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition, argues that the state depends on new arrivals from other countries to keep its population stable, fill jobs and pay taxes as many native-born workers move away or retire. Since 2000, it says, the state has experienced an annual net loss of 46,000 U.S.-born residents heading to other states, but that loss was partially compensated for by a net gain of 31,770 residents from other countries. The percentage of the state’s work force made up by immigrants grew from 8.8 percent in 1980 to 17 percent in 2004.
Getting To School
The second report, by a task force that the Colleges of Worcester Consortium created last August, points out that there are barriers to college education for many immigrants. These include both a lack of information about things like applications and financial aid, and gaps in K-12 education, including insufficient support for students trying to learn English.
The report’s recommendations include creating a centralized web site on college applications aimed at the local immigrant populations, letting K-12 students take some classes in their native language while they learn English, training more teachers to work with students who aren’t native English speakers and giving financial aid to students who are waiting to get a green card. The report doesn’t take a position on Gov. Deval Patrick’s plan to let undocumented immigrants who have lived in the state for years get in-state rates at Massachusetts colleges.
Both reports are unabashedly pro-immigrant, which is not surprising considering that MIRA is an advocate for immigrants’ rights and that the Consortium task force includes members of MIRA and other immigrant organizations. That irritates some people, including a number of readers who wrote in to respond to an online newspaper article on the Consortium report. They wrote things like “No educational assistance should be provided illegal immigrants until every American who wants an education is provided one,” and “No help for legal or illegal immigrants when we do not take care of our own children.”
The commenters tend to assume that undocumented immigrants get all kinds of benefits that might otherwise go to those born in the country. Studies suggest otherwise. For example, in a 2006 article in a peer-reviewed journal called The Tax Lawyer, Francine J. Lipman of Chapman University in California writes that “every empirical study of illegals’ economic impact demonstrates [that] undocumenteds actually contribute more to public coffers in taxes than they cost in social services.” She adds that many illegal immigrants also contribute to Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance programs despite being unable to claim benefits from them.
Education And Entrepreneurship
In any case, part of the logic behind supporting education for immigrants, or anyone else, is that they’ll gain skills that will help them contribute to the economy. The Consortium report says that growing numbers of those entering the state have limited English skills and little education. Immigrants with a college degree earn twice as much as those with only a high school diploma, it says.
The MIRA report notes that many immigrants are also entrepreneurs. In the Massachusetts biotech industry in particular, it says, one in four companies were founded by at least one foreign-born person. While there are plenty of successful business owners with little formal education, it seems likely that a college degree would increase a student’s chances of going on to start the kind of company that pays well and employs a significant number of people.
On the other hand, the newspaper readers who responded with complaints about immigrants may have some good points. Many of the comments note how difficult it is for working- and middle-class Americans to get a good education and find good jobs. That’s an issue where they could easily make common cause with immigrant parents. The Consortium report says that many immigrant students in the Worcester Public Schools are considered “low income” and have trouble keeping up in class simply because their basic needs are not being met. But it’s clearly not just immigrants that face that issue: 63 percent of the district’s students fall into the “low income” category.
Solutions to problems specific to immigrants won’t do much if the problems that immigrants and the native-born both face aren’t addressed.
Meanwhile, no matter how successful efforts to help more immigrants get degrees are, there’s no reason to think immigrant college graduates aren’t subject to the same pressures as any other young professionals. If they can’t find affordable places to live, graduates of WPI and Clark are going to end up outside the state, regardless of whether they were born in Worcester, New Jersey or Ghana.
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