Monthly Archives: June 2013

June 28, 2013. In the Next American City Series, a piece on Baltimore focuses on the role of immigrants in the city's economy. “You want to create a context that’s welcoming to everyone,” says Kallick, “and a culture that’s welcoming to everyone seems particularly welcoming to immigrants.” A lowered likelihood of being aggressively questioned for immigration status, goes the thinking, might appeal to an immigrant in perfect compliance with the law as much as it might to an undocumented new arrival. Under this approach, a [...]

June 26, 2013. On his blog, and in the Huffington Post, Jared Bernstein echoed the importance of labor standards enforcement as a key part of making immigration reform work, as David Dyssegaard Kallick, director of FPI's Immigration Research Initiative, had stressed in an op-ed piece in Newsday. At this point, a large minority (Kallick says “as many as 45%”) of the undocumented immigrants already here entered legally and overstayed their visas.  As far as they’re concerned, border security shuts the barn door after the horse [...]

June 26, 2013. The Christian Science Monitor ran a story, also reprised in The Alaska Dispatch, about the massive spending on border security added to the Senate bill in its final days to gain Republican votes. The article quotes FPI David Dyssegaard Kallick on a more productive way to use enforcement dollars. Or how about boosting the ranks of federal and state labor inspectors, suggests David Kallick of the liberal Fiscal Policy Institute. Such reinforcements not only would make sure the undocumented aren’t working off the [...]

June 24, 2013. In an Op Ed, “The City Budget Should Be a Force for Good,” which was recently published by The Chief-Leader, FPI’s Deputy Director and Chief Economist James Parrott argues that the annual budget process should be about planning for the future and not just managing expenditures. He identifies and discusses four areas where the budget can be used to produce meaningful outcomes for all New Yorkers. The city needs to re-think the social-safety net and policies to combat poverty. City resources should [...]

June 23, 2013.  A Gannett News Service article on the NYS legislature’s adoption of a somewhat revised version of Governor Cuomo’s “Tax-Free New York” quotes from FPI’s recent report on this proposal on this proposal: "New York State’s past experience with geographically-targeted business tax incentives should raise huge red flags regarding the efficacy of the proposal as an economic development strategy,” according to a report last week from the Fiscal Policy Institute, a labor-backed think tank. The article by Gannett’s Albany Bureau Chief Joe Spector [...]

June 19, 2013. Von Diaz reports on FPI's analysis of the economic effects of immigration reform. The FPI report perhaps isn’t the most provocative to come out in recent months, but it takes a balanced approach. Kallick doesn’t claim that legalizing undocumented immigrants will be the saving grace of the struggling U.S. economy. Rather, Kallick describes a measured approach, which he believes could lead to greater economic stability. “I think that people sometimes exaggerate the potential consequences – positive or negative,” Kallick says. “I hope people [...]

June 16, 2013. A story by Reflejos on the FPI report about the economic impact of immigration reform. The economic benefits of immigration reform should not be overstated. This would be a big benefit for undocumented immigrants, but would have modest benefits for the overall economy—we’re talking, after all, about just five percent of the overall labor force. But while the benefits should not be exaggerated, they are very real. As Jared Bernstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities put it, “bringing millions [...]

June 14, 2013. The blog Redefining Welcome interviews David Dyssegaard Kallick about FPI's recent report on immigration. "Legalization is the right thing to do, not least because it is our only practical option. You simply can’t deport 11 million people. But, I think it’s important to know that this will also be good for the American economy. I wouldn’t overstate the gains. Undocumented immigrants make up five percent of the country’s labor force—that’s enough to matter, but not enough to dramatically swing the economy one [...]

June 13, 2013. A Journal-News analysis of new Census data showed that Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam all saw a significant growth in the non-white share of the population, "some of the largest ethnic shifts in the Northeast." “The whole country is diversifying,” said David Kallick of the Manhattan-based Immigration Research Initiative. “The white population is growing older, and the younger population is much more multicultural and multi-ethnic than the older generation. That’s our future, ready or not.” Growth among Hispanics, African-Americans and Asians is pushing [...]

June 6, 2013. The Polish-language paper Super Express features a story about the Fiscal Policy Institute's report on immigration reform. Ameryki i jej mieszkańców, o naszej metropolii nie wspominając - mówi David Dyssegaard Kallick, dyrektor Fiscal Policy Institute's Immigration Research Initiative, niezależnego instytutu skupiającego się na różnych aspektach mających wpływ na rozwój gospodarczo-ekonomiczny Nowego Jorku. - Z naszych wyliczeń wynika, że Nowy Jork zyskałby znacznie na sile roboczej. Wiele osób przestałoby się bać i dzięki temu efektywniej pracowało. Ponadto nie zapominajmy, że reforma wyeliminowałaby szarą [...]