The Case For Immigration

by Stuart Shapiro

The debate over immigration is so filled with bluster and rhetoric that policy analysis struggles to get its voice heard (true of many issues, but particularly immigration).  James Ledbetter at Slate tries to add some rationality to the debate:

Pro-immigration arguments are booming, and reached a zenith this week with the publication of a paper by the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, arguing among other things that immigrants, despite popular misconception, do not displace American workers. This has led a number of economic bloggers to make the very rational argument that one of the best things America could do now to fix our sagging economy is to encourage more people to come here and work.

The arguments make a lot of sense (read the whole piece) but it leaves out a critical pro-immigration argument.  So much debate is going on about saving Medicare and Social Security.  Well, you know what the easiest way to help these programs would be?  Having millions more people paying into them each year.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.