Costs And Contributions: The Wave From South Of The Border

Costs and Contributions: The Wave From South of The Border

Every year, hundreds of millions of people enter the US via land ports of entry, and the INS each year apprehends over 1.3 million aliens at or near the border. Over 90 percent of those apprehended near the border are Mexicans, and some who enter the US legally and illegally are carrying drugs into the US.

This influx of illegal immigrants from south of the border has created quite a stir in many places. Is this good that people are coming to the U.S.? What will happen if this pattern keeps up? Will they steal our jobs? What effect will this wave of people have on us? These questions plague many and deserved to be answered in the following paper on: "Costs and contributions: The Wave

From South of The Border".

"Dowell Myers (USC) reported on his double cohort method--by age and year of entry-- of analyzing what happened to immigrants arriving in the seven southern CA counties after 1980. His analysis shows that especially young immigrants make considerable economic progress after their arrival--as measured by their total incomes--and that some of their behavior converges rapidly to that of natives, e.g., they rapidly abandon buses and drive cars to work. In southern CA, one-third of all bus riders are recent immigrants.

Myers noted that immigration is raising other issues, including overcrowded housing. The US definition of acceptable housing was two or less persons per room until 1960, when the definition was change to one or less per room. However, as immigrants moved into southern CA, overcrowding jumped, raising questions about how aggressively cities should enforce housing codes developed during a non- immigrant era." Many are haunted by the question: will we be hurt? Over crowding has had a major impact on families living near the Mexican border lowering standards of living and living space as well. Also, citizens wonder about the filthy scum that comes from south of the border-are all illegal immigrants scum?

George Vernez outlined an ambitious project that is dealing with the question of whether immigration is a plus or minus for CA by examining the effects of immigration on internal migration, on wages, and on public finances since 1960. Those studies showed that immigrants from most countries do catch up to similar natives in average weekly earnings after 10 to 20 years, but not immigrants from the major country of origin--Mexico. Furthermore, immigrant children tend to follow in their parents' footsteps, meaning that the children of Asian immigrants tend to do well in school, etc., while the children of