Two Labor Economic Issues for the Immigration Debate

Memorandum for: Interested Parties

By John Podesta | April 4, 2006

As the debate over immigration reform continues, I wanted to share with you an important memorandum from Alan Krueger, the Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Princeton and a member of the Center's academic advisory committee for economic policy. 

Contrary to many reports in the media, Krueger argues that the best available economic evidence suggests that increased immigration has little impact on wages for low-wage domestic workers.  He also argues that if we are serious about helping low-income workers, we need to act now on measures that can have a much larger impact, like increasing the minimum wage.  Krueger's paper concludes by discussing the importance of protecting the rights of immigrant workers--to maximize their contribution to our economy and to prevent exploitation of both these workers and domestic workers. I hope you find the memo useful.

Read complete memo (PDF)