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Sociology Research Paper
Immigration and the Economy i Immigration and the Economy i

How and Does Immigration Affect the American Economy?
A Review of the Literature

Joshua Kashani, Ahmad Khalil, JD Lindayag, Francis Ignacio
Sociology 4
Professor Hoshiar
October 3, 2012
Immigration and the Economy ii
Immigration and the Economy ii
Does Immigration Affect the U.S Economy?
A Review of the Literature In this day of age, many Americans are having a hard time looking for jobs due to the economy. The area of concern that we are researching is the effects of immigration on U.S. job employment rates and whether it’s heavily affecting US citizens or not. There are four conflicts which we decided to cover, which are, wages, education, race, and also supply and demand for U.S. workers (Peri, 2010; Anrig, 2004; Camarota, 2010; & Smite, 1997). The reason why we decided to research this topic is to provide information on how immigration either a positive or negative effect to the employment rates here in America. With that said, our hypothesis is that immigration will have a negative effect on American workers due to the fact that they will have more competition to the mass immigration over the past decade. The rest of this literature review will be split up into four sections, discussing the four conflicts we have chosen followed by a conclusion. 1 Does the education level depict who is affected more severely by immigration? 2 Does immigration impact wages? 3 Does immigration increase supply of labor create a demand for less American workers? 4 Are different races (location) affected differently by immigration?
Effects on Wages Illegal immigration has a dramatic effect on wages in the lower class area of the American economy in many different ways (Caramota, 2005). One way that immigrants affect wages is by working for less money once they arrive to the country (Caramota, 2005). Most of the time the level of education of immigrants



References: Camarota, S. (2005, November 16). The Impact of Immigration on the American Workforce. Center for Immigration Studies. Retrieved September 18, 2012, from http://www.cis.org/node/553 Camarota, S. (2004, October). A Jobless Recovery? Immigrant Gains and Native Losses. Center For Immigration Studies. Retrieved September 18, 2012, from http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/back1104.html Greg Anrig (28, September 2004). Immigration, Jobs, and the American Economy. [ONLINE] Available at: http://tcf.org/publications/2004/9/pb491. [Last Accessed 19, September 2012]. Giovanni Peri (10, August 2010). The Effect of Immigrants on U.S. Employment and Productivity. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2010/el2010-26.html. [Last Accessed19, Sep 2012]. Steven A. Camarota (November 2009). Immigration’s Impact on U.S. Workers. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.cis.org/node/1582. [Last Accessed 18 September 2012]. Steven A. Camarota, Karen Zeigler (May 2010). A Drought of Summer Jobs: Immigration and the Long-Term Decline in Employment Among U.S.-Born Teenagers. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.cis.org/teen-unemployment. [Last Accessed 18 September 2012]. Greg Anvig, Tova Andrea Wang (2004). Immigration, Jobs and the American Economy. [ONLINE] Available at: http://tcf.org/publications/2004/9/pb491. [Last Accessed September 18, 2012]. Immigration and the Economy xiii Immigration and the Economy xiii Micheal Greenstone, Adam Looney (2012). What Immigration Means For U.S. Employment and Wages. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/jobs/posts/2012/05/04-jobs-greenstone-looney. [Last Accessed September 19,2012].

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