George J. Borjas

Mass immigration puts a strain on the U.S economy, argues George J. Borjas in the following viewpoint. Today’s immigrants have fewer skills and are less educated than immigrants in the past and therefore earn lower wages, he points out. Immigrants compete with low-skilled native-born workers for jobs, displacing these workers and driving down the wages for all unskilled laborers. Moreover, Borjas contends, immigrants are more likely to receive public assistance than are natives, and welfare use among the current wave of immigrants is actually increasing. The lower level of economic performance among immigrants persists for several generations, extending the costs of immigration into the future, the author concludes. Borjas is the Pforzheimer Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

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