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Immigration And African American Wages And Employment: Critically Appraising The Empirical Evidence, Patrick Leon Mason

Patrick L. Mason

This paper critically assesses the empirical evidence on the relationship between immigration and African American employment. Studies using various methodologies and data are reviewed: natural experiments, time series, and cross-sectional studies of local labor markets and intertemporal changes in the national labor market. We find that for African Americans as a whole, immigration may have little effect on mean wages and probability of employment. However, there is some evidence that immigration may have had an adverse impact on the labor market outcomes of African Americans belonging to low education-experience groups. However, even this modest conclusion must be qualified: the literature …

The Structural Injustice Of Forced Migration And The Failings Of Normative Theory, David Ingram

David Ingram

I propose to criticize two strands of argument - contractarian and utilitarian – that liberals have put forth in defense of economic coercion, based on the notion of justifiable paternalism. To illustrate my argument, I appeal to the example of forced labor migration, driven by the exigencies of market forces. In particular, I argue that the forced migration of a special subset of unemployed workers lacking other means of subsistence (economic refugees) cannot be redeemed paternalistically as freedom or welfare enhancing in the long run. I further argue that contractarian and utilitarian approaches are normatively incapable of appreciating this fact …

Trends In Median Household Income Among New York City Latinos In Comparative Perspective, 1990 - 2011, Laird Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines trends in median household incomes among New York City’s Latino population between 1990 and 2011, and considers these in comparative perspective with the City’s other major race/ethnic groups as well as with Latinos across the United States.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Between 1990 and 2011 median household incomes among the City’s entire population fell by -4.7%. …

Issues In The Analysis Of Inequality, Michael R. Smith

Population Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster Discussion Paper Series/ Un Réseau stratégique de connaissances Changements de population et parcours de vie Document de travail

In spite of data and methodological challenges, research has largely reached the conclusion that earnings inequality has risen in Canada, the US and elsewhere, and that the rise has been mainly driven by large increases at the top of the earnings distribution. Researchers offer two competing explanations for causes of the rising inequality: (1) innovations in information and communication technologies, and (2) institutional changes such as the freezing of the minimum wage, decline in unionization, and the spread of performance-related pay increases. Inequality is influenced by changes in population composition, specifically, the size of cohorts entering the labour market, and …

"These Illegals": Personhood, Profit, And The Political Economy Of Punishment In Federal-Local Immigration Enforcement Partnerships, Daniel L. Stageman

Publications and Research

Contemporary popular discourse linking immigration and immigrants to crime has proved extremely difficult to dislodge, despite clear evidence that immigrant labor provides broad and direct economic benefits to a significant proportion of the US population. The criminalizing discourse directed at immigrants may in part be functional, by leading to restrictionist immigration policies and practices and subjecting immigrants to intensified economic exploitation.

This study examines the economic context in which state and local governments adopt restrictionist immigration policies and practices, and implicates the political economy of punishment (Rusche and Kirchheimer, Punishment and social structure. New York: Columbia University Press, 1939) …

Ripples From The East Coast Stream: Contributions From Migrant Hispanic Workers To Maine’S Wild Blueberry Industry, Vaishali Mamgain

Maine Policy Review

Interviews with 46 Hispanic migrant workers in the wild blueberry industry in Maine revealed they harvest different crops in several states and come to Maine at the end of the “East Coast Stream.” Although workers varied in productivity (and hence income), overall the group earned good income and contributed significantly to the Maine economy as workers and consumers. Based on these findings, governmental laws and policies are discussed in terms of their potential impact. A consideration of Maine’s aging population and interviews with employers demonstrate these workers’ importance: without them employers say, the wild blueberry industry would not be competitive.