Published by the Cato Institute and the National Immigration Forum

by Julian L. Simon

INTRODUCTION

This pamphlet contains only economic and demographic facts relevant to immigration, facts that may be helpful to persons of all opinions and interests in reaching conclusions about immigration policy. It aims to be entirely factual. It does not contain any advocacy or ideology, to the extent that this author can make it so.

The pamphlet makes no judgments about whether immigrants--legal or illegal--should obtain any goods or services from the government, or indeed, whether natives, or those who do not reside within the United States, should obtain any kinds of goods or transfer payments. These are value judgments, though the facts herein are relevant to such judgments. Nor does the pamphlet make any argument about whether more or fewer immigrants should be allowed to enter the United States, though it does contain facts about what may be expected economically if more or fewer immigrants enter. It also makes no comment about whether there should be greater or less enforcement of immigration laws. These are political and ethical judgments that each reader must make for herself or himself, though it is hoped that these judgments are made in light of the data presented here.

To increase the intellectual consensus on which the book rests, I have directly quoted other scholars as much as possible.

Wherever possible, the data are presented in graphs. The pictorial format is particularly helpful in portraying trends. Graphs provide historical perspective and protect us from being unduly swayed by a few recent data or by the occasional study that is inconsistent with the larger body of fact because of vagaries in data collection or analysis.

* * *

In the midst of the debate in 1985 about immigration legislation proposed by Senator Alan Simpson and Congressman Roman Mazzoli, I prepared How Do Immigrants Affect Us Economically? a pamphlet that was a forerunner of this one. It contained stripped-down facts and theory touching on many of the same topics as this one. It was sponsored by 10 organizations concerned with immigration across the political spectrum. In 1989 there appeared my book The Economic Consequences of Immigration.

There has been a great outpouring of research on the economics of immigration since then. This pamphlet focuses mainly on the new empirical material; the scholar seeking more data and the historical background of the literature will find them in my 1989 book. For other reviews of relevant recent data, the reader may also consult Moore (1994) and Fix and Passel (1994).

This is the main change in the past decade: In percentage terms, illegal immigrants and perhaps refugees use more welfare services than they did one or two decades ago. The extent of that use still is small relative to the use by natives and legal immigrants, however, and it is small relative to the taxes illegals pay into the public coffers.

Otherwise, the recent research has strongly confirmed the other main facts that were adduced in the 1985 pamphlet and the 1989 book.

The reader will find no mention of differences among immigrants by race or country of origin. That is because such information does not bear upon the most important question for immigration policy: the overall number of immigrants that are admitted to the country. Furthermore, I am greatly uninterested in comparisons of groups by race and national identity, so my taste coincides with policy importance.

This pamphlet does not claim to be an exhaustive review of the literature, though that is a valuable goal. It does claim, however, that the facts it asserts are not contradicted by articles and books that are not cited herein.

The tables have been removed from the on-line version of this report. They will be added soon. (10/7/96)

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT IMMIGRATION | CONTENTS