A New York Times article uses the need for employees in Miami’s restaurants to illustrate the U.S. need for more immigrants.[1]
“More immigrants have streamed into South Florida than to most American cities, and for decades, employers have relied on them to wash dishes, put up drywall and care for grandmothers. Still, there are not enough to fill Miami’s relentless boomtown demand for [restaurant] workers.”
“As unemployment rates nationwide have sunk to record lows, filching workers — from kitchens and construction sites, warehouses and Walmarts, truck cabs and nursing homes — has become routine. In cities like Miami that are magnets for immigrants, newcomers have filled some job openings, but employers across several industries and states insist that many more are needed for their businesses to function, let alone grow.”
“[M]ost economists say . . . that there is plenty of room [for immigrants]. Immigrants make the country richer, they argue. For example, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office who has advised Republican presidential candidates and now leads the conservative American Action Forum, says, “Without immigration, we shrink as a nation. . . .That’s because growth is driven by two ingredients: the size of the work force and how efficiently those workers produce things. And both are creeping well behind the postwar average.”
A key reason in this analysis is “Americans are having fewer babies. Birth rates fell last year to a three-decade low, ensuring that the next generation of native-born Americans will be smaller than the current one.”
Moreover, “using census data, the investment company the Blackstone Group estimates that without immigration, the working-age population between 25 and 64 years old would drop by 17 million by 2035. [Its Vice chairman of Private Wealth Solutions says,]“We really need immigrants. If we have a shrinking population, it’s going to be tough to have rising G.D.P.,” or gross domestic product.”
“At the moment, there are 7.3 million job openings nationwide and six million people unemployed. That gap is expected to widen as the number of retirees grows faster than the number of new workers.”
While some immigrants may take jobs from U.S. citizens, “they also help create jobs — by generating demand for goods and services like groceries, haircuts and homes.” In addition, “immigrants complement American workers. More educated women, for example, may decide to work if the availability of immigrants makes child care more affordable.”
This positive economic impact is seen in Dallas, Texas where 32.2% of all businesses are owned by immigrants while generating 55,000 jobs and nearly $495 million of business income. A study concluded that “immigrants tend to be more able, ambitious, aggressive and entrepreneurial than those who chose to stay in their place of origin.” [2]
Overhanging businesses, especially restaurants, in finding and hiring more workers is the legal risk of hiring undocumented individuals. In March and April of this year “the Social Security Administration sent letters to hundreds of thousands of business owners, notifying them that the names of some employees did not match the Social Security numbers on their tax forms.” In response some employers are planning to fire their undocumented workers or adopt more stringent hiring procedures such as using the E-Verify program to check the new hires’ documents. If, however, the employers ignore these “no-match” letters, a subsequent immigration audit by Immigration and Customs Enforcement could conclude that they had “constructive knowledge” of their employees’ immigration status and thereby expose the employer to hefty fines and possible criminal charges. [3]
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[1] Cohen, Is Immigration at Its Limit? Not for Employers, N.Y.Times (Aug. 22, 2019). This blog consistently has argued that the U.S. needs more immigrants. See, for example, these 2019 posts to dwkcommentaries.com: More Warnings of the Problems Facing U.S. Aging, Declining Population (Aug. 14, 2019); Additional Support for U.S. Needing More Immigrants (May 18, 2019); Trump Erroneously Says U.S. Is “Full,” (April 9, 2019); U.S. Construction Industry Needs More Immigrants (April 3, 2019); Businesses Need More Immigrants (Mar. 24, 2019);“America’s Farms Need Immigrants” (Mar. 22, 2019).
[2] Vizcaino, ‘What do you lose if you don’t have anything?–Why 1 in 3 Dallas businesses are owned by immigrants, Dallas Morning News (Aug. 16, 2019)
[3] Yaffe-Bellany, Hiring Is Very Hard for Restaurants These Days. Now They May Have to Fire, N.Y. Times (Aug. 23, 2019).