Wall Street Journal (Op-Ed)
By James Freeman
May 17, 2018
A fun game on social media is to quote President Donald Trump’s harsh comments about violent criminals residing illegally in the U.S. and pretend that he is speaking about immigrants in general. Rather than taking the President out of context, his critics should simply urge him to welcome more law-abiding newcomers to a country in need of their contributions.
Today this need appears to be even more acute. The Journal reports:
American women are having children at the lowest rate on record, with the number of babies born in the U.S. last year dropping to a 30-year low, federal figures released Thursday showed.
Some 3.85 million babies were born last year, down 2% from 2016 and the lowest number since 1987, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. The general fertility rate for women age 15 to 44 was 60.2 births per 1,000 women—the lowest rate since the government began tracking it more than a century ago, said Brady Hamilton, a statistician at the center.
The figures suggest that a number of women who put off having babies after the 2007-09 recession are forgoing them altogether. Kenneth M. Johnson, senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire, estimates 4.8 million fewer babies were born after the recession than would have been born had fertility rates stayed at prerecession levels.
“Every year I expect the number of births to go up and they don’t,” said Prof. Johnson.
The AP quotes the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “The rate of births to women ages 15 to 44, known as the general fertility rate, sank to a record low of about 60 per 1,000.”
We’re not welcoming much new talent from overseas, either. Recently this column noted that immigration to the U.S. has lately accounted for even fewer new residents than the historically low levels of domestic baby-making:
The U.S. population has been growing very slowly, less than a percent per year since 2010. And what little growth there is lately has largely come from births in the U.S. Even at historically low rates, babies born in the U.S. account for almost four times as many net new Americans as do immigrants.
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis isn’t seeing a surge either. It reports an historic recent decline in the working-age population of the U.S., measured as people aged 15-64.
Certain industries feel the immigrant shortage more than others. Last week the Journal reported on congressional efforts to persuade the Trump administration to issue more H-2B visas for low-skilled workers:
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) said that in her home state, fisheries, which are heavy users of the program, are in desperate need of a decision within a week in order for the companies to have workers in place for the summer fish run.
“We are in a situation where, once again, our processors aren’t able to be on the ready to receive the fish when they hit. We can control lots of things. We cannot control when the fish come,” she said. “We are asking you, urging you, politely and then forcefully, to address this very, very quickly.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D., N.H.) said that businesses in her state can’t find workers and that last summer, restaurants closed on certain days because they didn’t have enough workers.
“What can I tell these businesses who are desperately calling to say what are we going to do about workers?” she asked.
Now along comes a study today from former regional Fed economist Madeline Zavodny, now at the University of North Florida, suggesting that new talent doesn’t hurt our existing talent and may even help. She finds that “having more immigrants reduces the unemployment rate and raises the labor force participation rate of US natives within the same sex and education group.” Ms. Zavodny adds:
The results may be surprising, but they are consistent with research that finds immigration has little adverse effect on native-born workers’ wages and employment. The results do not deny, however, not all workers in America are doing well. The results simply point to the fact that immigrants are not to blame for deeper structural forces or circumstances that may have led to dim labor market prospects for some workers.
It is eminently sensible to wage an aggressive campaign against illegal aliens who are involved in violent crime. It’s equally sensible to recruit and welcome new Americans who are not.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment