Speech #1100008756

I believe. of Dr. Barry Chiswick. head of the Department of Economics at the University of Illinois In Chicago. when he testified before the Senate committee last spring. He said: The large increase in lowskilled immigration . . . has had the effect of decreasing the wages and employment opportunities of lowskilled workers who are currently residing in the United States. Over the past two decades . .. [tlhe real earnings of lowskilled workers has either stagnated or decreased somewhat. This is Dr. Chiswick. He goes on to say: We . . . need to ... provide greater assistance to lowskilled Americans in their quest for better jobs and higher wages. [O]ne of the ways we can help them in this regard is by reducing the very substantial competition they are facing from this very large and uncontrolled lowskilled immigration that is the result of both our legal immigration system and the absence of enforcement of immigration law. Professor Harry Holzer. Associate Dean and Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown. said this before the Judiciary Committee last spring. He believes American workers do want jobs currently held by illegal laborers and he believes that absent illegal immigrant competition. employers would raise wages and improve working conditions to attract American workers. Absolutely that will happen. This is what the Associate Dean and Professor of Public Policy in Georgetown said: I believe that when immigrants are illegal. they do more to undercut the wages of native born workers because the playing field isnt level and the employers dont have to pay them market wages . . . [T]here are jobs in industries like construction I think are more appealing to nativeborn workers and many nativeborn lowincome men might be interested in more of those jobs. . . . Absent the immigrants. the employer might need to raise those wages and improve those conditions of work to entice nativeborn workers into those jobs. As we consider this. lets also consider the relevance of unfair competition to lowskilled workers. Lets let their wages go up in this time of unprecedented prosperity and GDP growth and profits.