Download Heaven`s Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy

Heaven’s Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy
George J. Borjas
Immigration is a hot topic today and this book certainly has interesting points
relating to how the United States will shape its policies relating to the influx of people
entering the United States in search of a better life. I will summarize the book in detail
by analyzing each chapter and wrapping it up with the conclusion. So here I go….
Chapter 1: Reframing the Immigration Debate
The United States admitted 730,000 legal immigrants, 200,000 illegal aliens, and
over 100,000 refugees in a typical year in either the 1980’s or 1990’s. The issue here is
that the people that are entering the country are generally characterized as less-skilled
workers. This leads to severe implications (negative) for the lower skilled segment of the
market. So what should be done then? One proposal is to limit the number of people that
can immigrate on a yearly basis. The idea of the chapter focuses on the objectives of an
immigration policy. Hopefully, the policy will reflect a political consensus that
incorporates all relative concerns regarding this debate.
Chapter 2: The Skills of Immigrants
The primary elements of this chapter relate to the skills that immigrants bring to
the table and what the economic benefits (if any) the United States will enjoy.
Immigrants face tough challenges because of factors such as a lack of English
proficiency, lack of knowledge of the labor market and lack of knowledge about
geographic locations best suited for job opportunities. Therefore, the short run projection
for productive immigrants is bleak, but the long run view is much better. In a nutshell, all
of the immigrants that have entered the United States since 1965 are relatively unskilled,
and do not perform well in the labor market.
Chapter 3: National Origin
The idea of this chapter pertains to the flow of unskilled immigrants into the
United States. Essentially, this flow of people has many undesirable economic and social
repercussions. What should be done then? Borjas proposes a policy that would assign a
skills-based point system to provide a simple mechanism for visa screening. This type of
system would emulate pre 1965 Amendments. The whole problem with this argument is
that the United States could be perceived as racist as opposed to a nation that is struggling
with a large number of unskilled workers that are not in the national interest.
Chapter 4: The Labor Market Impact of Immigration
Trade and immigration allow a country to employ resources that are scarce within
its borders. These are the same economic incentives that drive global trade. So the basic
premise of this chapter is that immigration probably has a much larger economic impact
in the long run. Immigration increases the labor supply on a permanent basis.
Chapter 5: The Economic Benefits from Immigration
The idea here is that the surplus of immigrants and the distributional impact of
immigration is useful for three reasons. The first reason is that economic considerations
matter. The second reason is that the economic impact of immigration is measurable so
the debate has to be over facts rather than ideology. On a final note, people living in a
democratic society should be informed about the opportunity costs associated with a
specific policy that will ultimately minimize or ignore economic considerations.
Chapter 6: Immigration and the Welfare State
This chapter focuses on the fact that immigrants are more likely to use the welfare
system here, especially the longer that they reside in the United States. Also, it is worth
noting that immigrants are generally going to stay on welfare for a longer period of time
than natives because they are less educated and have larger households to support. Most
immigrants will cluster in the states with the highest benefit levels and tell their family
members to come on over and sign up. This has led to welfare reform legislation which
unfortunately is not enforced. The short run prognosis is that natives will pay for
immigrants, but in the long run, the idea of investment has to enter the equation.
Chapter 7: Social Mobility Across Generations
In a nutshell, it can take three to four generations for people of different cultures
to blend together to form a homogeneous population. There is a false perception that the
economic performance of the children of immigrants far surpasses that of their parents.
This is based on the fact that immigrants in 1940 earned about 20 percent more than third
generation workers, while second generation workers in 1970 earned about 16 percent
more. Literacy also has a huge impact on wages. Since the second generation went to
school here, they are more likely to have better paying jobs, but there is a positive
correlation between the literacy of the parents and how their children perform in the labor
market. Every generation experiences half of the successes or hardships that their parents
felt.
Chapter 8: Ethnic Capital
The main question of this chapter is how can it be that only 20 to 40 percent of
parental differences in skills are transmitted to the children, but at least half of the ethnic
differences in the immigrant generation