Full Citation

Title: The Effect of Immigration on Low-skilled American Workers

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2009

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Abstract: Every year, hundreds of thousands of new immigrants enter the United States, legally and illegally. Many will obtain employment in low-skilled jobs, such as food preparation, cleaning, construction, and agricultural labor. A growing volume of studies have analyzed how immigrants affect the wages of American workers, particularly workers in low-skilled occupations. Does the presence of increasing numbers of immigrant workers drive down the wages of low-skilled American workers? This paper examines whether recent data support the hypothesis that increases in immigrant labor has a negative effect on the wages of low-skilled Americans. Demographic and economic data were obtained from the 2000-2007 American Community Surveys, compiled and sampled through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. This paper creates a model that estimates the wage impact of national changes in the percentage of immigrants working in selected low-skilled occupations. Estimates suggest that, when holding year and region effects constant, changes in the percentage of immigrant workers do not have a statistically significant impact on the wages of low-skilled American workers.

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Authors: Cook, Richard J.

Institution: Georgetown University

Department: Public Policy

Advisor: Christine Nord

Degree: Master in Public Policy

Publisher Location: Washington, D.C.

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Migration and Immigration, Poverty and Welfare

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