Speech #980246047

Mr. Speaker. I realize that we have debated the issue of immigration reform at great length. I. nonetheless. believe that two articles published in the August 2 edition of the New York Times reinforces the position that I. and many of our colleagues. have taken. I submit these articles for my colleagues so that they may better understand my opposition to H.R. 1510. the Immigration Reform and Control Act. I hopp these articles are of some use. particularly in light of the fact that we may have to consider a conference report on H.R. 1510. The articles follow: DONT FEAR JOB Loss (By Julian Simon) WASHINGTON.-The SimpsonMazzoli immigration legislation has come unstuck. A conference committee must now decide how to reconcile the Senate and House bills. amid unexpected pressures from the Democratic ticket. This affords an opportunity for Congress to consider some new evidence bearing upon a key premise of SimpsonMazzolithat immigrants increase unemployment by displacing natives from jobs. Displacement is the most emotional and influential fear about immigration. A headline in a Florida newspaper reads: "Haitian Refugees Take Away Jobs." In Texas. the winner of a Senate primary asserts that "Sixtyfive Americans lose their jobs for every 100 undocumented workers who are here." In Colorado. Gov. Richard D. Lamm says that importing more labor would be "demographic and economic insanity." And early on. the AFLCIO. went on record that it would fight the "hiring of foreigners as temporary workers." The complaint is ancient. John Toland wrote in 1714: "The vulgar. I confess. are seldom pleasd in a country with the coming in of Foreners .... from their grudging at more persons sharing the same trades or business with them." The complaint also seems to make sense: If jobs are limited and immigrants occupy some. there must be fewer Jobs for natives. Some displacements and some reduction in wages must occur when potential workers are added to an occupation. whether laboring or doctoring. There are. however. two opposing forces at workexpansion in aggregate demand and creation of new businesses by immigrants. The income immigrants earn increases the demand for goods and for workers to produce them. which in turn produces more income and more new Jobs. This continues until the economy approaches a new equilibrium. with the same rate of unemployment as before. Toland understood this process well: "We deny not that there will thus be more taylors and shoomakers. but there will also be more suits and shoos made than before." Immigrants also start new businesses. These are usually small ones. but an astonishing 66 percent of new jobs arise in firms with 20 or fewer employees. A Canadian