What is immigration doing to our labor market?

A bipartisan immigration group has suggested that the US economy is at risk by not allowing more immigrants to work, which is necessary to make up for the growing gap in the workforce. newsweek,

The National Immigration Forum said there are currently about 10 million jobs to be found around the skills spectrum, although with more boomers leaving the workforce and lower entry fees, American undecideds cannot fill those roles.

On Monday, San Francisco’s Federal Reserve reported that one-fifth of the easing of job market “stress” in 2023 could be attributed to increased immigration.

Cities with large numbers of undocumented arrivals, such as New York and Los Angeles, have seen a much larger impact, with this percentage only set to increase as immigrant numbers increase.

“Now more than ever, we need to make sure we have people coming into the system who can do the job,” NIF President Jenny Murray directed. newsweek on Tuesday.

Murray said there are ways to explore opportunities for immigrants who want to work, while also addressing Americans seeking protection.

The Fed’s research projects that about 3.3 million of the population will have net migrated to the US in both 2023 and 2024, compared to an average of about 1 million once a year in 2010.

The central bank said the population influx compounded problems in the labor market, reducing the “job market-to-vacancy ratio”.

Immigrants have insufficiently sunny avenues for painting in America

A common storyline through immigration discussions in the US and around the world is the fear that immigrants are taking over the roles of those who were already in the country. NIF argues that this is not the case.

Over the past period, NIF found that immigrants made up about 73% of all agricultural workers in the US, more than 30% of construction workers, 25% of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workers, and 28% of all highly professional % represented. Health care professional.

Murray gave an example from early 2022, when she was in Poland at the outbreak of the Russia–Ukraine war.

Refugees – mainly women and children – arrived in the thousands, with Canadian officials arranging stands to call for workers to move to Canada.

“Meanwhile, people would ask me: ‘How do I get a job in an American company? Who wants me there?’ And my response was ‘I want you and a lot of people want you, but I don’t have an answer for you,’ Murray said.

“It is deeply troubling how far behind we have fallen in the global competition by not being open to people who want to come to the United States.”

NIF argues that Republicans and Democrats should work together

Murray argued that there are also easy, but not necessarily simple, treatments that have existed for many years but have not been acted upon.

“We have wonderful border frameworks that Republicans would be happy to support, that create resources, order and security at the border,” he said, adding that there are ways to edit the asylum system to protect it but prevent abuses. are not allowed.

“The part that doesn’t make it easy is the political divide,” Murray said. “The fact that people are making bets about immigration and deciding what will benefit them politically and what won’t is unfortunate.”

Murray said he believed the companies were lobbying lawmakers to legally gain the right of access to a broader group of workers, though emotional reactions to the migration numbers were less than actual exchanges. She was coming in the way.

“We really have to see our leaders be leaders and really step up and say: ‘Enough is enough,'” he said.

The Fed study showed that states with higher flows of undocumented arrivals, particularly New York and New Jersey, saw more jobs filled, even in the case of undocumented immigrants, according to the state. Left behind.

Murray said those who flee, whether incarcerated or not, are often contributing to their communities in terms of taxes, but avoid accessing government products and services for fear of being deported. , said Murray.

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