Job Center Helps Immigrant Workers As They Await Reform

March 13, 2013. An article in the Brooklyn Ink talks about a community jobs center.

Immigration reform could resolve these issues, and also benefit the national economy, if its 1986 incarnation is any indication.

“Immigrants who’d previously been undocumented were able to move to jobs suited to their abilities, invest in education, and increase their wages,” said David Dyssegaard Kallick, a senior fellow at Fiscal Policy Institute. Reform would also create a more level playing field for employers of low-wage workers, he said, some of who lower their business costs by hiring undocumented workers.

But allowing immigrants to meet every demand of the labor market might not be the optimal solution.

“You want some pressure for wages and labor force participation to rise, and pressure to invest in education if there aren’t enough architects or engineers, for example,” Kallick said. “You need a balance.”