Is the New Immigration Really so Bad?

2005/11/01 by David Card · 12 citations
Social Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Migration and Labor Dynamics #Labor market dynamics and wage inequality #Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

paper · doi:10.1111/j.1468-0297.2005.01037.x

openalex publication_date 2005/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

This article reviews the recent evidence on US immigration, focusing on two key questions: (1) Does immigration reduce the labour market opportunities of less skilled natives? (2) Have immigrants who arrived after the 1965 Immigration Reform Act been successfully assimilated? Overall, evidence that immigrants have harmed the opportunities of less educated natives is scant. On the question of assimilation, the success of the US‐born children of immigrants is a key yardstick. By this metric, post‐1965 immigrants are doing reasonably well. Even children of the least educated immigrant origin groups have closed most of the education gap with the children of natives.

Citations

• Assimilation, Changes in Cohort Quality, and the Earnings of Immigrants
• Changes in Relative Wages, 1963-1987: Supply and Demand Factors
• Immigrant Inflows, Native Outflows, and the Local Labor Market Impacts of Higher Immigration
• Skill‐Biased Technological Change and Rising Wage Inequality: Some Problems and Puzzles
• Can Falling Supply Explain the Rising Return to College for Younger Men? A Cohort-Based Analysis
• The Labor Demand Curve is Downward Sloping: Reexamining the Impact of Immigration on the Labor Market

Cited by

• Immigration and Inequality
• The economic contribution of unauthorized workers: An industry analysis
• Meta-Analyses of Labour-Market Impacts of Immigration: Key Conclusions and Policy Implications
• On the association between undocumented immigration and crime in the United States
• A GLOBAL VIEW OF CROSS-BORDER MIGRATION
• The effect of immigrant peers in vocational schools
• Access to Citizenship and the Economic Assimilation of Immigrants
• The new economic case for migration restrictions: An assessment
• Do Employers Support Immigration?
• Illegal Migration from Mexico to the United States
• Causes of unemployment in the United States [wikipedia]
• Immigration to the United States [wikipedia]