Rapid increases in immigration since 1990 have not generally hurt employment of American workers, according to a study released by the Pew Hispanic Center on Thursday. But the study found instances where foreign-born workers may have a negative effect on the employment prospects of native-born workers.
The center studied U.S. Census data on the increase in immigrants from 1990 to 2000, and from 2000 to 2004, for each state. The data matched those figures with state employment rates, unemployment rates and participation in the labor force among native-born Americans.
The U.S. had 28 million immigrants legal and illegal age 16 and older in 2000, an increase of 61 percent from 1990. By 2004, there were 32 million.
Rakesh Kochhar, the associate director for research who authored the study, said no consistent pattern emerged to show that American-born workers suffered or benefited from increased numbers of foreign-born workers.
Among other findings of the report were:
· Many immigrant workers lack a college education and are relatively young, but they had an impact on the wages of native-born workers with similar socioeconomic backgrounds.
· The share of foreign-born workers in the work force of a state was not related to the employment rate for native-born workers in either 2000 or 2004.
