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Immigration in Utah: Background and Trends
Immigration in Utah, as well as in the United States, has always been an issue that has evoked intense emotion and debate. Recent increases in the number of immigrants coming to the U.S. have caused the issue to become a top concern for Utahns.
This brief provides data on the growth of Utah’s immigrant population, including estimates of the undocumented population. It also reviews some research studies on the impacts of undocumented immigration on taxes, government spending, and the economy.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
we need to stricter immagration laws and enforce them
August 28th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Nice report, very well done. I am waiting for some statistician to show that the increasing gap in wealth between the poor and rich is in direct proportion to the large influx of immigrants.
Some people complain about the wage gap and then site tax laws or some government leader, but I believe your report suggests the “depression in wages” caused by immigrants is benefiting “employers” at the cost of “employees”.
If we ever seriously enforced immigration laws the gap between the poor and the rich would shrink. Nothing like a healthy labor shortage to transfer wealth to the “working man”.
August 29th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Chance, thanks for the compliment. That was an interesting finding in the brief — that Harvard economist George Borjas said immigration has reduced wages for low-skilled Americans (mostly high school dropouts) and transferred the savings to wealthier Americans in the form of higher profits and lower prices for goods and services. I would temper that by saying it’s only the opinion of one economist, but it does fall in line with economic theory (that more plentiful supply of labor would lower prices for any given demand level), and Borjas seems to be well respected.