Immigrant Law of Labour Market - Essay Example

Immigrant Law of Labour Market Theoretically, immigration has both advantages and disadvantages on the labour market, depending on the skill the immigrants have and the skill that workers possess in the country. In addition, some characteristics of the host country determine the value of the immigrants and their effect on the demand for labour. While short-term effects are manageable, long-term effects of immigration on the labour market often presents perilous effects to the host country. For instance, short-term effects in relation to skills, means that the immigrants will only substitute the existing workers for a short period before they are replaced. On the contrary, skilled immigrants pose a considerable threat to the labour market, which ends up in several disadvantages for the host country. Skilled immigrants who can substitute the existing workers in the host country are disadvantageous because they will intensify competition in the labour market and resultantly lessen wages (Lucchino, Rosazza-Bondibene, and Portes). The effects of the decrease of wages will significantly be prejudiced by the level of skill of the immigrants. Although there may be an increase in productivity, an influx of skilful immigrants means that wages will decrease, while less skilled immigrants would not have a considerable effect on the economy. In consequence, an immigrant law is necessary to identify and delineate immigrant workers and their qualifications. The occupational and industrial structure of the labour market may transform owing to the change in the mix of goods and services manufactured in the economy. Labour demand suffers in either way, based on the abilities of the immigrants. Immigrants who are less skilled may force the labour market to adopt strategies that require low-skill labour, while employees that are more skilled will develop a technology-oriented approach in the labour market. Although this may have some rewards, a change in the economy is a risky process that may have negative repercussions on a country. The adoption of different production practices, for instance, labour-intensive or technology intensive determine the way that the labour market will counter economic growth. Although there may be minimal wage differences, it is common for low-waged workers to lose, while high-waged workers stand to gain from immigration (Dustmann, Frattini, and Preston). In essence, this means that the effects on average wages may not be evidently felt, but a section of the labour market that will be largely affected. An immigration law means that such minor details that largely affect the lower paid workers are conspicuous at an early stage. In addition, there is an effect of newer immigrants to existing immigrants in terms of adverse changes of wages. Undocumented immigrants may affect economic growth, because although their effect may be unnoticeable, it often reverberates on wage distribution. During an economic downturn, workers born in the host country may endure the effects of unemployment. An immigration law ensures that qualified workers in a region are not forced to compete for menial jobs with immigrants, to an extent that they remain unemployed. It may result in more unemployment and greater inoperativeness of the current workers and eventually determine labour market participation. For instance, a study conducted in the UK revealed that UK-born citizens with intermediate education endured the effects of immigration in terms of adversarial effects on employment, labour market involvement and joblessness. In contrast, immigration had a positive impact on those with university degrees or any form of advanced education (Rienzo 1). The study evidences the effects of immigration on different wage brackets, effects that require comprehensive monitoring by a law. An immigrant law of the labour market is important for four key reasons. First, immigration raises the proficiency of the United States’ economy (Furchtgott-Roth 2013). Immigrants make the country’s financial system more proficient by lowering bottlenecks triggered by labour scarcities in both large and small risk fields. Consequently, more employment opportunities come up for indigenous Americans. The United States’ immigration framework is administrative and consumes a great deal of time. As a result, there is a need for reform. Skills of indigenous American employees are allocated in a bell-shaped arc. Numerous American citizens only graduated from high school and even less has PhDs. On the other hand, the skills of immigrants are allocated in a U-shaped arc (Ness 133). From this arc, an unequal number of adults being high school dropouts seeking manual labour while others have PhDs seeking white-collar jobs. According to the National Science Foundation, immigrants make up nearly 16% of the American workforce. At the same time, these immigrants account for half of the workforce with no high school credential. In addition, these immigrants account for 25% of all higher degrees and 25% of these higher degrees are in science, engineering, and arithmetic (Furchtgott-Roth 2013). These higher degrees account for a smaller part of high school diplomas and bachelor degrees. As a result, these immigrants are not a direct competition for jobs with a majority of indigenous Americans. The service, manufacturing, and farming industries unequally account for unskilled immigrants (Ness 133). As a result, unskilled immigrants hold titles in lines of work like custodians, landscapers, tailors, and farm labourers. The United States government, academic, and health industries employ the least numbers of unskilled immigrants. Secondly, immigration laws attract entrepreneurs to the United States (Furchtgott-Roth 2013). New businesses grow an economy. Immigrants launch enterprises in the United States more than indigenous Americans. For instance, Adolph Coors, and Henry Heinz were immigrants who established new and lucrative businesses in the United States. Businesses created by immigrants create employment opportunities for millions of United States citizens. Immigrant laws that do not favour immigrants will only cause them to set up their businesses in other countries. Eventually, the United States misses multiple opportunities to create jobs for millions of its citizens. Thirdly, immigration law raises national security (Furchtgott-Roth 2013). Immigration law that grants citizenship to the millions of employees without credentials already living in the United States can raise national security. In addition, this law can offer provisional border passes to immigrants who qualify for background inspections, which will contribute to national security. This way, immigrants living and working in the United States legally can acquire bank accounts and contribute to the legal side of the market. Additionally, government agencies can easily track immigrants with bank accounts and social security numbers, particularly when the United States is still fighting terrorism (Chiswick 204). Lastly, immigration law of labour market lowers the country’s debt (Furchtgott-Roth 2013). According to the Congressional Budget Office, favourable immigration laws can lower the national debt by $135 million during the coming decade. The Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that without limitations on the green card and H-1B visas between 2003 and 2007, an extra 182,000 immigrant graduates of IT, engineering, and arithmetic would have stayed in America (Furchtgott-Roth 2013). As a result, then United States missed on the income and contributions of these immigrants to the GDP, which would have reached $14 billion in 2008. In addition, this group of immigrants would have accounted for taxes worth nearly $3.6 billion. Arlene Holen of Technology Policy Institute approximated that plans to lower green card and short-term work limitations for skilled applicants discussed by Congress half a decade ago would have lowered the national debt by $100 billion during the following decade (Ness 133). In spite of these four advantages of immigration law of the labour market, a great deal of Congress opposes it. This opposition largely arose from worries pertaining to assimilation. The immigration law enacted by the Senate in 2013 does not favour the economy because of increased expenditure. The federal government will spend an additional $46 billion on border safety because of this immigration law (Furchtgott-Roth 2013). At the same time, the United States’ labour market will hurt in terms of higher deficit and small employment opportunities. Evidently, the United States requires immigration law to make it simple and promising to move to America and improve peoples’ ways of life. Works Cited Chiswick, Barry R. High-Skilled Immigration in a Global Labour Market. Washington DC: Government Institutes. Dustmann, Christian, Tommaso. Frattini, and Ian, P. Preston. “The Effect of Immigration along the Distribution of Wages.” Review of Economic Studies 80, no 1 (2013): 145-173 Furchtgott-Roth, Diana. 4 benefits of immigration reform. 2013. Market watch. Web. 2014, June 12. Lucchino, Paolo, Chiara, Rosazza-Bondibene, and Jonathan Portes. “Examining the Relationship between Immigration and Unemployment using National Insurance Number Registration Data.” NIESR Discussion Paper 386. National Institute of Economic and Social Research, London, 2012. Ness, Immanuel. Immigrants Unions & The New Us Labour Mkt. New York: Temple University Press. Rienzo, Cinzia. Migrants in the UK labour market. The migration observatory, 28th September 2013. Read More