US Immigrant Population by Region or Origin (000s)
The United States is the single largest economy in the world and arguably the most liberal. It is therefore not surprising that, throughout its short history, it has been a primary destination for immigrants seeking economic opportunity. The US immigrant population grew by 57% from 1990 to 2000. As of 2003, over 33.5M or 11.7% of the US population was foreign born. The large numbers of foreign born citizens has led to intense political debate on how best to control or limit immigration.
Common opinion holds that immigrants represent valuable sources of both skilled and unskilled labor. Companies in the construction and hospitality industries are especially dependent upon unskilled workers. Any major legislation resulting in increased deporation of unskilled workers, or increased penalties for companies that hire them could lead to labor shortages and/or rising labor costs. High tech companies are also dependent on skilled workers, such as engineers and computer programmers. As a group, immigants respresent an extremely large customer base with very specific needs. Companies that provide services such as money transfer, international calling cards, and targeted entertainment are the most impacted by changes in immigration legislation. While many of these companies have lobbied Congress to permit increased immigration, many American citizens have taken the opposite viewpoint. The latter group fears that both skilled and unskilled immigrants who are in many cases willing to work for less than their native counterparts, pose a threat to American job security.
[edit] Immigration Bill
The United States Senate passed a bipartisan bill aimed at comprehensive immigration reform in May of 2007. This bill which still has to pass through the Senate proposes to change the main criteria for granting visas from one of family reunification to one that is more merit based. In other words immigrants who possess the skills that are in demand within the US will be given preference.
US Immigrant Population by Profession
[edit] Effect on unskilled workers
Approximately $12MM immigrants residing within the United States are undocumented (illegal). These immigrants accounted for approximately 5% of the total US work force in 2005. Illegal immigrants are mostly unskilled and are employed primarily in the areas of construction, food preparation, hospitality and farming. The new immigration bill proposes to create avenues for the majority of these unskilled workers (particularly those working in agriculture) to obtain citizenship. This would be in conjunction with an expanded guest worker program that would allow for between 400,000 and 600,000 guest workers to enter the country temporarily for work each year.
[edit] Effect on skilled labor
Under the H1-B visa program immigrants who possess expertise in certain areas, computer programming, engineering etc., - can enter the country using special work visas good for 1-6 years. The current bill proposes to increase the limit for these visas from 65,000 to 115,000. This increase come with a catch, however. Under the current system employers sponsor immigrants for H1-B visas based on their individual needs. Under the proposed system immigrants will be able to be able to apply directly for the visas. The immigrants will be able to apply directly for the visas without sponsorship from companies.
[edit] Companies benefiting from favorable immigration legislation
- Western Union, Money Gram, and Coinstar provide money transfer services to millions of immigrants within the US. Both companies will benefit from any legislation that legitimizes current illegal aliens and expands the number of workers who can enter the company legally. Such legislation would not only increase their customer base but make it easier for these businesses to serve their existing costumers.
- Univision which provides Spanish language programming (radio and television) to the largely immigrant hispanic population in the US would also benefit.
- Providers of international calling cards and banks such as Wells Fargo would also benefit.
- Major agricultural companies would also benefit from favorable legislation. Currently over 50% of agricultural workers are immigrants.
- Construction Companies such as Samsung Corp. depend on low cost immigrant labor to drive their construction projects.
- Microsoft, and Oracle require extremely large numbers of engineers in order to develop their products. Other companies that would benefit from favorable legislation include Sun Microsystems.
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