Commentary
Because of the rising costs of higher education and real fears of crippling student debt, an increasing number of Americans
are skipping college. Nationwide, between 2019 and 2022, undergraduate college enrollment dropped 8 percent. More Americans are rejecting the idea that higher education is the only path to success.
According to a
recent report published by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), those who skip college make more money when immigration rates are lower. After analyzing weekly earnings for full-time workers between 2012 and 2022, the authors of this interesting report concluded that lower rates of immigration help those without college degrees.
“Real (inflation-adjusted) median weekly earnings for U.S.-born workers without a bachelor’s increased more quickly during the period of lower legal and illegal immigration from 2016 to 2019 than in periods of higher immigration before and after,” the report notes.
The analysts were quick to cite “Trump administration policies” as one of the reasons why. As the report clearly states, between the fourth quarters of 2016 and 2019, inflation-adjusted, weekly earnings for full-time, U.S.-born workers without a college degree grew by more than 3 percent. During this time, the report adds, “growth in the total immigrant population (legal and illegal) averaged about 400,000 a year, compared to about 730,000 a year from 2012 to 2016, when earnings actually fell slightly for the less-educated U.S.-born.”
Steven Camarota, one of the authors of the report, told me that former President Donald Trump and his immigration policies helped in a couple of ways.
“They were sometimes modest like those listed in the bullets of the report and sometimes bigger like ’remain in Mexico.'”
“Also,” added the director of research for the CIS, “his rhetoric seemed to have made a difference, discouraging people from coming and encouraging more people here to leave.”
However, since 2020, real earnings “declined for virtually all workers.” This fact, note the authors, “should give pause to those now calling for more immigration to reduce inflation by lowering wages further, particularly for lower-paid, less-educated Americans.”
The United States is, in many ways, a nation of immigrants. In fact, it’s home to more immigrants (45 million) than
any other country. According
to the Pew Research Center, over the next 40 years, immigrants and their descendants are projected to account for a whopping 88 percent of the country’s population growth.
This growth, it seems, could hurt the
many millions of U.S.-born citizens without a college degree. On the other hand, it will likely benefit those who arrive in the United States, through both legal and illegal channels.
“Among immigrants (legal and illegal) without a bachelor’s,” reads the report, “real median weekly earnings increased substantially from 2012 to 2016.”
Immigrants, according to the
Brookings Institution, are a net positive, because they “boost economic activity, promote innovation, and improve the productivity of native-born workers.”
However, as more Americans say no to college, this well-worn narrative is certainly up for debate. After all, not all immigrants enter the country legally. As Doug Lamborn, an attorney and the U.S. representative for Colorado’s 5th Congressional District,
has noted, illegal immigration has a devastating effect on the United States, “a nation formed on the rule of law.”
“Today,” he highlighted, “there are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States.”
The consequences of illegal immigration are extremely serious. In addition to overwhelming communities and compromising national security, illegal immigration, according to Mr. Lamborn, pits Americans “against job-desperate illegal immigrants, unfairly depressing the wages and working conditions offered to legal residents.”
Contrary to popular belief, as the aforementioned report states, “the often-made argument that the U.S. economy must have very high levels of immigration to prosper” isn’t backed up by objective data. This report clearly shows that, in order to keep working-class Americans safe and secure, it’s time to vocally challenge the “America needs more immigrants”
narrative.
As Mr. Camarota told me, “On the idea we need more immigration generally, I would first point out that the foreign-born share of the U.S. population hit a near record of just under 15 percent of the total population at the
end of last year, which roughly matches the all-time highs reached in 1890 and 1910.”
“It grew 3.4 million just between January 2021, when Biden took office, and November of 2022,” he said.
Mr. Camarota firmly believes that the United States is “headed into uncharted territory,” and because of this, he added, “We need to consider the implications of these numbers for assimilation and integration, to say nothing of the absorption capacity for our schools, health care system, and infrastructure.”
Does America really need more immigrants? Although
many say yes, this report paints a very different picture.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
