IMMIGRATION and economic mobility

• Within ethnic groups, the second generation achieves 5 to 10 percent higher wages relative to native-born workers than does the first generation. • About half of the economic status of one immigrant generation persists into the next, a relationship that has remained stable over the past several decades (Borjas 2006). • Some economists argue that immigration accounts for a 3 to 4 percent decline in the earnings of native-born workers, with losses concentrated at the low end of the income distribution (Borjas and Katz 2005); others find negligible or positive impacts (respectively, Card 2005 and Ottaviano and Peri 2006). The relationship between immigration and economic mobility is complex and has likely shifted over time in response to increases in the size and changes in the composition of the immigrant population. America offers opportunities for many immigrants to improve their earnings relative to what they could earn in their countries of origin, and research suggests that immigrants' children tend to experience further economic gains. But the effect of immigrant workers on the earnings of low-skilled, native born workers may be significantly negative; some find that the recent influx of low-skilled, immigrant labor makes it more difficult for low-skilled native-born workers to gain higher wages. So, while immigration produces upward intra-and intergenerational mobility for immigrants themselves, it may depress upward intragenerational mobility for native-born workers.