The Fiscal Policy Institute's
Immigration Research
Initiative
FPI's
Immigration Research
Initiative was
started in 2007 to examine the role of immigrants in the New York State economy.
The initiative has released two major reports -
Immigrants and the Economy (December 2009) and
Working for a Better Life (November 2007) -
as well as a number of smaller publications.
The Immigration Research Initiative is guided by
an
expert advisory panel of
respected professionals in a range of relevant fields.
The
initiative is directed by
David Dyssegaard Kallick,
FPI Senior Fellow, who can be
reached at
212-721-7164 or
ddkallick@fiscalpolicy.org.
How are immigrants faring in the economic downturn? Data released by FPI
shows that immigrants, who make up nearly half of the New York City labor
force, have an unemployment rate that is slightly lower than for U.S.-born
workers. First, immigration is sensitive to labor market demand, so when there
are fewer jobs, immigration slows. Second, lacking a safety net, immigrants
are more likely to work at whatever jobs they can get. U.S.-born workers may
have the resources to search longer for jobs that better match their skill
level.
Immigrants are by no means all low-wage workers in the 25 largest
metropolitan areas, as this new report shows. In many metro areas, there are
more higher-skilled immigrants than there are lower-skilled. Surprisingly,
these are not the metro areas with the most economic growth; rather, they are
areas with low overall immigration, including Pittsburgh, Detroit, and St.
Louis. This is a companion report to Immigrants and the Economy, below. More
>>
In the 25 metro areas combined, immigrants account for 20 percent of economic
output and 20 percent of the population. The same basic relationship holds true,
with slight variation, for each of the 25 areas, from metro Pittsburgh, where
immigrants represent 3 percent of population and 4 percent of GDP, to metro
Miami, where immigrants make up 37 percent of the population and 38 percent of
GDP. Immigrants and the Economy also looks at the
wide range of occupations held by immigrants and other reasons immigrant
economic contribution is so consistently strong, with a special focus on the
five largest metro areas in the East.
What
role do immigrants play in the New York State economy?
In 2006, they added $229 billion in economic
activity - representing fully 22.4 percent of the state's gross domestic
product. This
major new report also examines what countries immigrants come
from, where they work and how well they are doing. The report includes detailed
analysis of the role of immigrant workers and families in three distinct
regional economies: New York City, the downstate suburbs, and upstate New York.
Senior fellow David Dyssegaard Kallick testified at a public hearing held by the
National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform to hear ideas from members of the public. He
testified
about the relationship between immigration and economic growth and
about the importance of federal support for state and local governments.
January 21, 2010. Immigrants in New York City: Economic Profile by Country
of Origin.
Data citywide as well as specific to countries of origin (in order of population impact):
Dominican Republic, Mexico, India, China, Jamaica, Ecuador, Colombia, Guyana
and British Guiana, Philippines, Haiti, El Salvador, Korea, Trinidad and
Tobago, Poland, Peru, Italy, Russia and other USSR, Ukraine, Pakistan, Cuba,
Bangladesh, and Hong Kong.
December 13, 2009. New York's Regional Economies: The
Hudson Valley.
April 16, 2010.
The Week in Immigration News. By Julissa Treviño, the Washington
Independent, a webpaper owned by a network of state-based online news sites
founded by the Center for Independent Media.
April 8, 2010.
Immigration Reform Now. An editorial by Felicia Persaud, founder of
CaribWorldNews.
March 27, 2010. All Things New York, WWRL. Host Rennie Bishop and
David Dyssegaard Kallick discussed the diverse occupations of New York
immigrants from Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Haiti and the Dominican
Republic.
February 12, 2010.
An immigrant stimulus to the economy. By Justin Akers Chacon, a professor
of U.S. history and Chicano studies in San Diego, for the Progressive Media
Project.
"You can see in San Diego, which is a similar story to other
places, that although there is a concentration of immigrants in
lower wage occupations … there is also a very strong representation
of immigrants in the higher end occupations," said David Dyssegaard
Kallick, Fiscal Policy Institute's director of the immigration
research initiative. "It shows that immigrants are really pulling
their own weight."
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight a report just released by the
Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group, regarding the
contributions of immigrant in the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S.
The report makes official what we've known all along: Immigration and
economic growth go hand-in-hand. That's right - immigrants boost economic
productivity and create jobs.
As documented by the
Fiscal Policy Institute, immigration has, in fact, been a vital
force in the American economy. Even in tough times, immigrants boost
or replenish the labor pool and inject entrepreneurial energy that
opens businesses and creates jobs.
...
Clearly, the larger
the number of immigrants, the greater the economic activity. But the
reverse is also true. Shutting the borders and throwing out those
who have built productive lives here would do untold damage to the
country. Maintaining the United States as an immigrant-friendly
nation is essential to our economic health.
September 27, 2009.
New
Islanders. By Lawrence C. Levy, Long Island Pulse.
The plight of these victimized visitors is a small part of the bigger
immigrant story. A study by the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI), based in Albany,
showed that low wage day laborers comprise a fractional part of the growing
Latino community, which itself is only the foam on a wave of increasingly
affluent newcomers. A broad spectrum of immigrants—including those from India,
Korea, China, Haiti, Africa, Iran and many other lands—are transforming
America’s oldest major suburb. And it’s not accurate to say they are making
merely a positive impact throughout Nassau and Suffolk. They have become the key
to our region’s social and economic survival.
