Skills of Immigrants Up

Newswise — With Congressional immigration legislation pending, a new study published in the Southern Economic Journal found that changes in immigration policy that control the types of immigrants admitted to the U.S. — especially the Immigration Act of 1990 — have had a direct effect on the overall skill level of new immigrants. The study, by Nicole Simpson, assistant professor of economics at Colgate, and Linnea Polgreen, a lecturer at the University of Iowa's economics department, also found that legal immigrants to the United States today have overall higher skill levels than foreigners entering the country in previous decades.

By combining data from United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) on 6 million legal immigrants with the Current Population Survey, Nicole Simpson, assistant professor of economics at Colgate, and Linnea Polgreen, a lecturer at the University of Iowa's economics department, observed several trends in immigration between 1972 and 1999, the last year that INS data was available.

In almost every year in the past three decades, for example, the pair found that immigrants who have spent time in the United States prior to obtaining permanent legal status, known as adjustments, are of higher skill levels than those who enter directly from their home country. Such types of immigrants typically include people who are tourists, students, or temporary workers.

"I think this just shows that the current proposals to provide amnesty to illegal immigrants who have worked in the U.S. five years or more will certainly benefit the economy," said Simpson. "These immigrants have acquired specific skills and training during their time in the country. As legal citizens, they will earn decent wages, pay taxes, and will continue to be an important component of the dynamic American labor force. If they are forced to leave, the economy will undoubtedly lose out."

Despite fluctuations, Simpson and Polgreen also discovered an overall upward trend in legal immigrants. They found a decline in legal immigrant skill between 1972 and 1987, then an increase between 1987 and 1993. By 1994, skills levels of Latin American and Asian immigrants decreased, leading to another decline in overall immigrant skill. But this period of decline was shorter and less severe than that of the 1980s; skill levels of immigrants rose again and improved in quality in 1998.

The fluctuations in skill levels over the years, said Simpson, are due to shifts in regions of origin, immigration policy, and/or the number of new legal immigrants with previous U.S. experience.

"I think most Americans believe that all or most immigrants come to this country with relatively few skills," Simpson said. "Our results suggest that this is not true. Skill levels of legal immigrants from all regions of the world except Latin America have improved in recent years. And in the case of Latin American immigrants, skill levels have not declined; they have simply remained relatively flat."

"What this means is that recent legal immigrants are in occupations with higher educational attainment than previous immigrants," said Simpson. "The improvement in the labor market quality of those new immigrants follows the improvement in the labor market quality of U.S. natives."

Highlights of the study:

"¢ Changes in immigration policy that control the types of immigrants admitted to the U.S. — including the 1980 Refugee Act and especially the Immigration Act of 1990 — have had a direct effect on the overall skill level of new immigrants. "¢ Immigrant skills fluctuate significantly between 1972 and 1999 and are more volatile overall than native skills."¢ The skills of Latin American immigrants between 1972 and 1999 exhibit little fluctuation while immigrants from all other source regions improve in quality. "¢ Immigrants who obtain an adjustment to their immigrant status compared to those who enter directly from their home country exhibit high levels of variability in their skills over the period of the study, and this has had a significant impact on overall trends.

For the purposes of this study, skill levels were measured by predicted educational attainment, and were calculated based on occupation, age, sex, marital status, etc. (Actual educational attainment could not be used, since INS data does not capture that information.)

Simpson co-authored another immigration study, "Mexican Migration to the United States Pacific Northwest," which appeared in the Population Research and Policy Review in 2004. She is currently working on a project that documents the increased dispersion and the significant differences in the economic characteristics of recent Mexican migrants throughout the U.S. She is available to discuss these and any other issues related to immigration, legal or otherwise.

Founded in 1819, Colgate University is a highly selective, residential, liberal arts college enrolling nearly 2,750 undergraduates. Situated on a rolling 515-acre campus in central New York State, Colgate University attracts motivated students with diverse backgrounds, interests, and talents.