Debunking immigration fearmongering. Again

by: Jeremy Burton

Thu Nov 18, 2010 at 09:15:31 AM EST

How many studies, how much evidence will it take to get people off the high horse that immigrants take jobs away from U.S. citizens?  We shared one study 2 weeks ago, now another one, from NY's Long Island, infamous for fearmongering by a Democratic (and Jewish) county exec who turned Republican to run (unsuccesfully) for governor on an anti-immigrant platform.  Turns out, as reported today, that:

contrary to a widespread perception on Long Island... the expansion of the immigrant work force — both legal and illegal — has crowded out few American-born workers.

“The analysis finds very little basis for the frequently voiced concern that immigrants may be displacing U.S.-born workers, the report, which was based on census data and conducted by the Fiscal Policy Institute, an independent research organization in New York, said. “As immigrants have come to play an increasingly important role in the Long Island economy,” the study said, “they have for the most part been readily absorbed into the labor market.”

Somehow, I suspect this will not end the politics of fear quite yet.  Read the full story here.