New Immigration Studies

Economic Impacts of Mass Deportations

The Houston Chronicle reports on a study that concluded that eliminating undocumented immigrants would cripple the national economy.  Here is the study, which was supported by Houston business leaders. Download lals_141_impact_of_undocumented_workforce_may08.pdf  it concludes that:

1. Removing the 8.1 million undocumented immigrants who work as bus boys, landscapers and other jobs, would cost nearly $1.8 trillion in annual spending.

2. Texas would be the second-hardest hit state after California if the state’s undocumented workers disappeared, removing $220.7 billion in spending within the Lone Star State.

The study was released Monday by the Americans for Immigration Reform, a group spearheaded by the Greater Houston Partnership.

Migration Policy Institute Report:  Mexican Immigrants in the United States By Jeanne Batalova

The 1980 census recorded the foreign born from Mexico as the largest immigrant group in the United States, and this group remains the largest today. In 2006, more than 11.5 million Mexican immigrants resided in the United States, accounting for 30.7 percent of all US immigrants and one-tenth of the entire population born in Mexico. While Mexican immigrants are still settling in “traditional” destination states like California and Texas, over the last 10 to 15 years, the foreign born from Mexico, like other immigrant groups, have begun moving to “nontraditional” settlement areas, such as Georgia and North Carolina, as well as Midwestern states, such as Nebraska and Ohio. This spotlight focuses on the foreign born from Mexico residing in the United States, examining the population’s size, geographic distribution, and socioeconomic characteristics using data from the US Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey (ACS) and 2000 Decennial Census, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS).   Download MPI-Spotlight-on-Mexican-Immigrants-April-2008.pdf

KJ