New SSRN Immigration Publications

Here are some new immigration-related articles from the Social Science Research Network (www.ssrn.com):

“Immigration and the Economic Status of African-American Men” Economica, Vol. 77, Issue 306, pp. 255-282, April 2010 GEORGE J. BORJAS, Harvard University, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); JEFFREY GROGGER, University of Chicago – Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); GORDON H. HANSON.  ABSTRACT:  The employment rate of black men, and particularly of low-skilled black men, fell precipitously between 1960 and 2000. At the same time, their incarceration rate rose. This paper examines the relation between immigration and these trends in employment and incarceration. Using data from the 1960–2000 US censuses, we find that a 10% immigration-induced increase in the supply of workers in a particular skill group reduced the black wage of that group by 2.5%, lowered the employment rate by 5.9 percentage points, and increased the incarceration rate by 1.3 percentage points.  [PROFESSOR BORJAS IS ONE OF THE MOST WELL-KNOWN ECONOMISTS WHO CONTENDS THAT IMMIGRATION HAS A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON AMERICAN WORKERS.]

“Ten Guiding Principles for Truly Comprehensive Immigration Reform: A Blueprint” Wayne Law Review, Forthcoming.  KEVIN R. JOHNSON, University of California, Davis – School of Law.  ABSTRACT:  This Essay is part of a symposium held at Wayne State University Law School in February 2010 that will be published in a symposium issue of the Wayne Law Review. It articulates ten principles that I contend should guide immigration reform that would be meaningful, comprehensive, and long-lasting. My hope is to offer a roadmap to truly comprehensive immigration reform, rather than the ineffective piecemeal (and often half-baked) efforts at reform that we have seen over the last few decades. This is my basic pitch: to avoid a repeat of the failure of the last major attempt at “comprehensive” immigration reform in the Immigration reform and Control Act of 1986, we need to acknowledge that immigration – undocumented and not – is largely labor-driven; only by addressing that unquestionable truth reasonably and responsibly will we be able to reform the nation’s immigration laws so that they are enforceable, effective, efficient, and respected. At the same time, family unification, protection of refugees, and national security and public safety are other goals that, of course, cannot be ignored by the immigration laws. Still, those goals must be appropriately – and expressly – folded into, and carefully balanced in an, overall immigration reform package.

“Citizenship and Allegiance: Before and After the Fourteenth Amendment” DAN GOODMAN.  ABSTRACT:  Before the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, one was considered a citizen of a State as well as a citizen of the United States. As such, one owe allegiance to both the individual State government as well as the United States government. After the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment; in the Slaughterhouse Cases, it was held that citizenship of a State was separate and distinct from citizenship of the United States. That a citizen of a State was separate and distinct from a citizen of the United States. Now a citizen of a State owes allegiance to the individual State government while a citizen of the United States owes allegiance to the United States government. A citizen of the United States, in addition, as a citizen of the United States and a citizen of a State, owes allegiance to the individual State government and the United States government. Quotes and cites to cases of the Supreme Court of the United States included.

“The Temporary Foreign Worker Program in Canada: Low-Skilled Workers as an Extreme Form of Flexible Labour” Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal, Vol. 31, p. 101-139, 2009 JUDY FUDGE, University of Victoria – Faculty of Law; FIONA MACPHAIL, University of Northern British Columbia.  ABSTRACT:  This article focuses on the legal regime that regulates the entry and exit of low-skilled temporary foreign and these workers’ rights and terms and conditions of employment while in Canada. We have chosen to study this program because little has been written on it and it is an example of the international trend towards a proliferation of temporary migration programs for low-skilled workers. Our primary concern is the employment-related rights of the temporary foreign workers, although we are also interested in beginning to explore the impact of this program in relation to the Canadian labour market. In order to understand the distinctive features and effects of the low-skilled temporary foreign workers program, we situate the low-skill Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) in the context of the emergence and development of Canada’s general TFWP. We begin by tracing the changes in the TFWP from its birth in the 1970s, and the gradual shift from immigration for permanent settlement to a reliance on temporary workers to address labour market shortages. We show how changes introduced in the 1990s resulted in the polarization and proliferation of targeted temporary migrant worker programs with different restrictions and entitlements for different groups of workers. We present data to demonstrate the rise in the numbers of temporary foreign workers entering Canada associated with these Program changes. The data also foreshadows the changes to the low-skill TFWP, which we concentrate on in the second part of the article. In our discussion of the low-skill TFWP, first we analyze the changes that have made the program more “employer-friendly” and then we examine the mechanisms designed to protect temporary foreign workers. In the conclusion, we offer a preliminary (and tentative) assessment of the impact of the program on the Canadian labour market and evaluate whether or not the employment rights of the workers who are admitted under it are protected. We also indicate how the economic crisis has influenced the legitimacy of the low-skilled TFWP.

KJ