Prospects in Texas not hurt, it concludes

By DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News

One of every six workers in Texas is foreign-born, but that hasn't hurt job prospects for native-born workers, says a Pew Hispanic Center study released Thursday.

The study comes as debates over immigration policy heat up on Capitol Hill, in congressional hearings around the nation and in political campaigns.

The nonpartisan center said that during the booming 1990s, native-born workers in Texas had above-average employment rates and the foreign-born population had above-average growth rates.

The study, based on census data, also didn't find a link between foreign-born workers and employment rates for native-born workers in 2000 through 2004, when the economy slumped.

"There is no clear relationship between trends in immigration and employment outcomes for native workers," said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research at the Pew center.

"Others can draw the connection, but we find no relationship."

The report wasn't sharply conclusive in its findings.

For example, Texas was part of a 14-state cluster in which rapid immigration appears not to have harmed native-born workers. That cluster represented 24 percent of native-born workers.

But in a cluster of eight states with above-average growth in the foreign-born population and below-average employment rates for the native-born, immigration may have had a negative impact, the study said.

That cluster accounted for 15 percent of native-born workers.

The report didn't look at wage depression in states where native-born workers may face competition from foreign-born workers.

Another recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank opposed to increased immigration, said native-born adults with a high school education or less are hurt by immigrant competition.

Many immigrant workers lack a college education and are relatively young, the report said, but the study found no evidence that they had an impact on the employment of native-born workers who have low levels of education and are ages 25 to 34.

At the Center for Immigration Studies, research director Steven Camarota said his think tank remains concerned about the impact of immigrants on less-educated young native-born workers who may be dropping out of the labor market entirely.

The immigrant in his mid-30s may be competing with a 22-year-old native-born worker, Mr. Camarota said.

"So how do you know what employment would have been, but for the immigrants?" he asked.

"That [group] may only make up 10 or 15 percent of the workforce, and so it is one of those good-news, bad-news kind of things."

The Pew study summarized the work of other academics on whether foreign-born workers displaced native-born workers.

It found there was no consensus on the issue.

The answer depends on such factors as the geographic scope of a labor market and choice of skill groups, the study said.

In 2000, there were about 28 million foreign-born people in the U.S.

While 16.4 percent of the labor force in Texas is foreign-born, 30 percent of the labor force in California is foreign-born – the largest percentage of any state.