Abstract
The U.S. has often been referred to as “a country of immigrants” following its long history of immigration. The nation has accepted a huge number of immigrants from various parts of the world during different periods. The economic effects of immigration remain critical and are increasingly becoming a contentious matter in the nation. The research seeks to analyze immigration in the United States and its effects. Moreover, the focused research question is: What are New Yorkers’ attitudes toward the effects of the current influx of immigration into the economy of New York City? The review of previous research shows that migrant influx to the U.S. has increased considerably with effects on the economy. Previous studies show that the economic effects of immigration on the country encompass employment and wages, fiscal impacts, productivity, and shaping of public attitudes on the matter. Factors like educational attainment, language proficiency, and human capital investment are essential determinants of the level of migrants’ assimilation and integration in the U.S.
Introduction
The United States of America is a perfect example of an immigration nation, which has been appealing to many worldwide immigrants for several years. The U.S. was partly built by immigrants, making the country the biggest beneficiary of the ingenuity and new energy that migrants bring. The U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services documents that about 14 percent of the population are have immigrant roots. Immigrants constitute substantial portions of the American workforce in various sectors, accounting for more than two-fifths of all fishing, farming, and forestry workers. Currently, the U.S. is home to several immigrants from all parts of the world. Whereas immigrants integrate more quickly in the U.S. than in other advanced European nations, migration remains a vastly contested policy in the United States of America (de Graauw & Vermeulen, 2016). For example, the mobility of the migrant workforce can burden or promote the economy of the U.S. Several factors interplay to impact the migration matters among foreign persons and native-Americans. However, due to the extensive complexity that immigration has brought to America, the economic aspects remain key in this research.
The research will start by discussing the theoretical framework that gives a detailed explanation of why immigration becomes an emotive and contentious matter in America. It will then proceed to discuss previous research done on this topic and their overall findings. It will then explain the method employed for this research and finally conclude with a summary of the main points covered in the paper and a call to action.
Literature Review
Impacts of Immigration in the United States of America
Labor Market and Wages
A widespread observation is that immigrants increase competition for jobs in the U.S. Whereas immigrants grow the labor supply, they also use their incomes on food, homes, and sectors of the economy to improve the local economic demands (Sherman et al., 2019). The surge, in turn, creates more opportunities for work to spur economic expansion and development. Edo (2018) investigated the effects of migration on the U.S job market with a focus on employment and wages. He established that there is a positive but negligible impact on wages while structural and nonstructural studies found no detrimental effects except for some groups of natives. According to the findings, immigration creates losers and winners by changing the wage structure and skills composition in the labor market. Whether immigrants are absorbed into the job market or not, unemployment rates can rise.
Economic theory shows that while an enhanced supply of labor from immigrants can initially depress earnings, in the long term, companies can grow investment to reinstate the figures of capital per employee and restore wages. Consistent development in the capital-labor proportion averts workers’ normal productivity and prevents a decline in wages in the long run (Haaland & Roth, 2020). Even though development in the assets stock makes normal wages from declining, immigration might impact the relative earnings of various types of employees by transforming their relative supplies. Immigrants in the past few decades have created a bimodal effect across education clusters. The biggest influence has been the influx of workers lacking high school certificates and labor at the end of the education spectrum of postgraduate degrees.
In another study, Abramitzky and Boustan (2017) discuss how immigrants are selected and assimilated into the US and the impact of immigration on the American labor market. The authors found that in the past, the US received positively and negatively selected immigrants while today they are positively selected. Additionally, European immigrants earned the same as natives compared to today’s immigrants from Asia and Latin America who get lower wages than the natives. Although the increase in workforce supply impacts the economy, in various instances, immigrants seem to complement native-American workers instead of replacing them since less-educated migrants usually lack the requisite education to acquire a professional certain job.
Productivity
Immigrants bring a new wave of ingenuity and talent, representing a disproportionate part of the workforce in the sectors largely linked to innovation. Economic theory postulates a direct association between innovative and skilled workforce and accelerated GDP growth. States with more foreign-born laborers show considerable productivity development. Less-skilled American natives usually react to stiff competition from migrant workers by shunning manual jobs for careers that emphasize communication and language skills (Sherman et al., 2019). This superior specialization results in a more effective allocation of the workforce, growing productivity, and income for both immigrants and natives.
Fiscal Impact and Growth
Overall, immigrants, whether undocumented or documented have an overall positive impact on the federal budget. The fiscal effects vary considerably at the local and state levels but remain contingent on the attributes of immigrant groups (Friedberg & Hunt, 2018). In many instances, immigrants tend to be less educated with lower incomes at all ages compared to those received by natives. The net effect of this situation is that immigrants pay less in local, state, and federal taxes, as well as consume federally funded prerogative programs like Medicaid at greater frequencies than natives. Immigrants also impose bigger tax burdens at the local and state level. Specifically, those immigrants with low income and less educated tend to have bigger families and children utilizing open K-12 education, resulting in bigger consumption of local and state budgets. However, in the long term, the rising economic flexibility and taxpaying lifespan of subsequent generation immigrants more than counterbalance the primary economic burden.
Shaping Public Attitude
Hainmueller and Hopkins (2013) discuss public attitudes toward immigration by concentrating on observational and experimental studies that have explored general insolences regarding the effects of immigrants. The authors found that immigration had no direct connection to personal economic conditions but attitudes are mainly influenced by concerns relating to cultural impacts. Additionally, immigration concerns are also related to their financial burden and labor market competition. Other studies have also explored the impacts of elite native-Americans’ statements about the immigration issue, especially during a political season where the issue turns out to be emotive. For instance, in the 2016 presidential poll, Trump’s negative sentiments about immigrants influenced public opinion in a restrictive manner. Flores (2018) corroborated this evidence with a panel survey experiment but the effects were not long-lasting, forcing restrictionist politics to be continued to gain effects.
Methodology
Study Population
The current study aims at understanding the viewpoints and attitudes of New Yorkers toward the influx of immigrants in New York City. The participants will be individuals who have lived in the city within a reasonable time. The participants will be recruited based on four major criteria: age, ethnicity, number of years lived in New York, and gender. The criteria will help in collecting sufficient views from the participants. The study intends to involve 200 participants who will respond to the survey form shared online. The surveys are completely anonymous and the only description that is required is the inclusion of the four criteria and explaining the views on the influx of immigrants and influences on the New York City economy.
Sampling Technique
The accuracy in this study will be partly anchored in the employed sampling approach. A population sample will be employed to gather views from New York City residents. Sampling entails selecting a subset of residents from the city as a representative of its characteristics (Eisele et al., 2020). Specifically, New York City has an approximated population of 8.5 million persons (Milkman & Naald, 2022). The research will adopt a simple random sampling technique to provide an equal opportunity for the city residents to participate in this project while being entirely chosen by chance. Random sampling technique has been preferred in this study because it is simple and lacks bias (Rozi et al., 2021). However, it has a shortcoming when dealing with a bigger population due to associated costs and time. Although the research employs a sampling surveying approach, the researcher will emphasize a comprehensive description of the response by making the questions straightforward and framed in simple language for ease of understanding.
The survey will encompass questions that will provide insights into the effect of immigrants on the New York City economy through a response that harnesses views and perceptions on the question. The question is structured to help the researcher comprehend the views of participants on the research topic under investigation. Besides seeking to know the economic impacts created by the influx of immigrants into the country, the researcher would also wish to draw the social status correlation with migration issues. The questions will focus on understanding issues such as competition at work, antagonism for social amenities, and incidences of racism. The review of the survey responses will encompass establishing the correlation between employment opportunities, wages, fiscal impacts, and immigration.
The researcher plans to administer the surveys via digital channels such as using google forms. The forms will be circulated on social media and target participants based in New York City. The method has been chosen since it is easily accessible by many persons and reduces costs associated with research such as printing questionnaires. The method also allows the reach of diverse persons with ease by sampling and accessing the links for conducting the online survey. Whereas the study hopes to receive an accurate response to the questions, some people might just click and answer it. The survey will be short so that it does not consume much time for the participants while asking an important question that can sway them to provide an appropriate response with care.
Discussion/ Conclusion
Evidence from pieces of literature illustrates a huge impact of immigration on the economy of the U.S. The issue of immigrants continues to remain a touchstone of the nation’s debate as various policies surrounding the topic weighed economic effects on the country. The research employs an economic theory framework to analyze the topic and establish the effect on the country’s economy. Through the theory, it is apparent that immigration has impacts on employment and wages, productivity, and fiscal budget, and shapes public attitude on the matter.
Supply of labor from migrants can originally weaken earnings, but in the long term, businesses can raise investment to reestablish the numbers of capital per employee and reinstate wages. While the increase in staff supply influences the economy, in various examples, immigrants look to match native-American employees instead of swapping them since less-educated migrants typically lack the necessary education to obtain a professional job. Economic theory suggests a direct connection between innovative and trained workforce and quicker GDP progress. Immigration concerns are also related to their financial burden and labor market competition.
The researcher expects that this study would find results similar to those seen in the reviewed literature. It is anticipated that the survey would illustrate that immigration shapes attitudes and perceptions of native residents in New York City with overall effects on various aspects of the economy. Moreover, the data will be analyzed through descriptive statistical tools to facilitate an enhanced understanding of the impact of immigration on the economy. Response from the survey questions will be thoroughly scrutinized to establish to extract the response and analyze with the view of getting the true picture of the economic effects of immigrants.
References
Abramitzky, R., & Boustan, L. (2017). Immigration in American economic history. Journal of Economic Literature, 55(4), 1311–1345. Web.
de Graauw, E., & Vermeulen, F. (2016). Cities and the politics of Immigrant Integration: A comparison of Berlin, Amsterdam, New York City, and San Francisco. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42(6), 989–1012. Web.
Edo, A. (2018). The impact of immigration on the labor market. Journal of Economic Surveys, 33(3), 922–948. Web.
Eisele, G., Vachon, H., Lafit, G., Kuppens, P., Houben, M., Myin-Germeys, I., & Viechtbauer, W. (2020). The effects of sampling frequency and questionnaire length on perceived burden, compliance, and careless responding in experience sampling data in a student population. Assessment, 107319112095710. Web.
Friedberg, R. M., & Hunt, J. (2018). The impact of immigrants on host country wages, employment and growth. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the New Immigration, 89–110. Web.
Haaland, I., & Roth, C. (2020). Labor market concerns and support for immigration. Journal of Public Economics, 191(1), 1-10. Web.
Hainmueller, J., & Hopkins, D. J. (2013). Public attitudes toward immigration. SSRN Electronic Journal, 1(1), 1-10. Web.
Milkman, R., & Naald, J. van der. (2022). The state of the unions 2022: A profile of organized labor in New York City, New York State, and the United States. Publications and Research. Web.
Rozi, F., Ramdlani, M., Najah, F., Azizah, N., Niswa, H., Abdillah, M., & Rozi, F. (2021). Distance learning and independent learning of students in higher education. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1899(1), 012177. Web.
Sherman, A., Trisi, D., Stone, C., Gonzales, S., & Parrott, S. (2019). Immigrants contribute greatly to US economy, despite administration’s public charge rule rationale. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Web.
Appendix
Thank you for participating in this survey. Your responses are invaluable to this study as they will greatly assist in analyzing the topic. Rest assured that every answer will be treated with the greatest discretion. Feel free to contact the researcher for any more feedback or issues.
Many thanks,
Project Researcher
Data Collection Tool
Note: For responses, strikethrough your answers where appropriate (A. Answer, B. Not Answer)
Biographical Information
- What gender do you identify with? A. Male B. Female C. Transgender D. Prefer Not to Say
- Which one of the following correctly describes your age range? A. 0-20 years B. 21-35 years C. 36-50 years D. 51 years and Above
- Which one correctly describes your ethnicity? A. American B. African-American C. Asian D. Other Race
Economic Status
- Which one best describes your source of income? A. Permanent Profession B. Temporary Profession C. Manual Job D. Prefer Not to Say
- Which one best describes your monthly income? A. $0-$2000 B. $2001-$4000 C. $4001-$6000 D. $6001 and Above
- What is your monthly household expenditure? A. $0-$1000 B. $1001-$2000 C. $2001-$3000 D. $3001 and Above
- Do you think the influx of immigrants has affected your monthly income and household expenditure? A. Yes B. No
- If, answered “Yes” above, please in one to two sentences describe how…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Social Status
- Do you think the increased number of immigrants has affected how you socialize with others? A. Yes B. No
- If answered “Yes” above, which one best describes how you are affected? (You can select more than one response) A. Competition at work B. Competition for Social Amenities C. Increased Racism Others
- Are there immigrants in your neighborhood? A. Yes B. No
- If answered “Yes” above, do you interact with the immigrants in your neighborhood? A. Yes B. No
- How would you describe your relationship with immigrants you have encountered? A. Cordial/Friendly B. Somehow Cordial/Friendly C. Harsh D. Somehow Harsh
Possible Cause of Action
- Do you think the existing legal measures against and in support of immigration are sufficient in addressing the situation? A. Yes B. No
- Does your state government address economic problems of immigration? A. Yes B. No
- In three to four sentences, kindly, give your thought on what the federal and state government should do to address economic problems you face due to immigration…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
IRB Application
Yes, the proposed research project qualifies as exempt from a full board review. This is because the proposed study comprises no bigger than minimal risk to research participants and every investigation procedure adheres to one of the exclusion criteria set out in the IRB guidelines. Minimal risk is the magnitude and probability of discomfort expected in the study and should not be bigger than those normally met in everyday life. Specifically, this proposed study aligns with category 1 under the “IRB exempt categories.” The study will be carried out in an established educational environment that entails ordinary educational practices, which carry no potential risks or adversely impact learners’ chances to study requisite educational content.
Moreover, the study conforms with the Belmont code for respect for individuals where it allows the participants to have the freedom to select whether or not to partake in the investigation. Therefore, this research shall allow intended informed consent to be administered to participants since the investigator shall be gathering data from participants through online interactions. Since the research project proposes collecting data through contact with study participants, the researcher shall offer partakers consent information that encompasses the following list of requirements. Firstly, it shall explain the request to participate in the study. Secondly, the research shall include the affiliation and identity of the investigator with a vivid description of the study and usage of the collected information. Thirdly, it will encompass a conspicuous message that involvement in the study is voluntary and that one can leave at any stage whenever they feel like exiting. Finally, it will include the researcher’s contact information for raising any concerns or questions about the study.