Running head: EFFECTS OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION ON THE US LABOR MARKET

The Effects of Legal Immigration on The US Labor Market

Thang Nguyen
Widener University

EFFECTS OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION ON THE US LABOR MARKET

Abstract
(Do not indent this text) According to CNN (an article is missing before CNN) report on
February 18th,(the APA manual/guide prohibits the use of th, nd, st, etc.) 2015, President
Barrack Obama claimed that America's immigration issue needs a comprehensive and permanent
legislative solution because legal immigration has caused many effects.(this is not clearwhat type
of effects needs to be indicated) Therefore, the impacts of immigration must (word choice issue) be
significantly researched in order to seek (word choice issue) the most feasible solutions. Through
analyzing and working on (this is unclear) the information of the (incorrect use of an article) past
studies, this study examined the effects of legal immigration on the US labor market. This study is
aimed at American workers and those who have shallow understanding of what the legal
immigration certainly brings to the labor market of the US. (sentence structure issue) The
research has indicated that a constant inflow of immigrants both aggravates and benefits the US
labor market on various aspects. (this is unclear) American workers, especially low-skilled bluecollar workers, have been driven to the verge of job losses and unemployment tress (word choice
issue) because low-skilled legal immigrants are willing to work under low working conditions
and low wages. (structure issue) In contrast, legal immigrants have contributed to the creativity of
jobs for American workers. Overall, there is little evidence to prove that legal immigration
negatively affects the US labor market. Therefore, this research suggests that more studies on
negative impacts of legal immigration be conducted in the future for the (incorrect use of an article)
accurate and precise interpretation.
GRADE = 8.5/10

EFFECTS OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION ON THE US LABOR MARKET

EFFECTS OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION ON THE US LABOR MARKET

The Effects of Legal Immigration on The US Labor Market
In recent years, immigration has become an increasingly heated controversy across the
world, especially in the US. Most American people have said (what is the source of this
information) that immigrants take job opportunities away from native-born workers and
contribute to wage reductions. Eric and Matthew (2011) argued that the existence of illegal and
legal immigrants prevents Americans from seeking jobs and makes employers extremely
dependent on foreign-born workers. In addition, the enormous native and authorized foreignborn, low-skilled workforce allows employers to offer low-paying jobs (Eric & Matthew, 2011).
Conversely, some experts (Orrenius & Zavodny, 2013; Adam, 2010) (I could not find this
source in your references) on the US labor market have argued that legal immigrants can fill
unwanted and low-wage jobs. These immigrants do not have negative impacts on wages of
native workers and not (verb structure issue) reduce job opportunities; the authorized
immigrants are possibly considered a positive force of economic growth (Immigration Is,
2013). (I could not find this source in your references) In the past 20 years, most of the experts
(give some examples of these experts) have struggled with finding the truth of the effects of
legal immigration on the US labor market; however (word choice issue), they still have not
found the final answers for immigration issues. Most people do not deny that legal immigration
might create labor market competition during economic hard times in USA; yet, legal
immigration comes with a wide range of positive and negative effects.
Statistically, the number of legal immigrants rose from 25 million in 1996 to 40 million
in 2011, representing 13 percent of the total US population (Orrenius & Zavodny, 2013).
Statistics (what is the source of these statistics) indicate that the number of authorized foreignborn workers underwent a great incline during the (word choice issuethis) 14-year period.

EFFECTS OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION ON THE US LABOR MARKET

The impacts of legal immigration on the US market are not easily identified because the flow of
illegal and legal immigrants in (an article is missing) U.S.A has recently rocketed (word choice
issue). Authorized immigrants may not cause any sizeable decrease in wages and employment
of the US citizens (Card, 2005) and foreign-born workers may raise wages of native-born
workers (Peri & Giovanni, 2009). (I could not find this source in your references) Legal
immigrants and American workers do not pursue the same job because they have different
skills, cultures, educational levels, and job orientations. (what is the source of this
information) In some industries, such as manufacturing and housing industries, which have
undergone a dearth of physical workforce, legal immigrants were considered a necessary and
suitable source that enlarges the US economy growth (Immigration Is, 2013). Orrenius and
Zavodny (2013) suggested that although legal immigrants made up only 16 percent of the
U.S. workforce, they accounted for a much larger share of the countrys growth.
Specifically, more than half of the increase in the U.S. labor force between 1996 and 2010
was dependent on legal and illegal (because legal and illegal are combine, it is difficult to
determine which group had what effect) immigration growth (Orrenius & Zavodny, 2013).
Furthermore, the researchers also claimed that if legal immigrants are less skillful or their skill
compositions are unlike those of American workers, they will be complementary to local
workers. The idea is that immigrants and residents mutually supply what the other lacks.
According to a report by Eric A. Ruark and Matthew Graham (2011), (this source is
not correctly entered in the references) a majority of economists substantiated that the poor
native workers face with negative consequences of legal immigration because authorized
immigrants compete with native workers on all educational levels. (structure issue) The
below-mentioned report (this is unclear) also explained that legal immigration makes

EFFECTS OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION ON THE US LABOR MARKET

contribution to a current surplus of low-skilled workers, which increases job competition and
decreases wages and work conditions to the detriment of poor and low-skilled American
workers (Eric & Matthew, 2011). Jack Martin and Eric A. Ruak (2010) requested (word
choice issue) that the presence of 8.4 million low-educated and low-skilled immigrants
depresses wages and working conditions for the low-skilled native-born workers.
The purpose of this research is presented (word choice issuenot needed) to evaluate
how the (incorrect use of an article) legal immigration effects the US labor market and find
evidences to make (word choice issuethe purpose of research is not to force anyone to do
anything; research simply presents the facts and allow readers to arrive at their own
conclusions) American workers more aware of the two-sided effects of legal immigration.

EFFECTS OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION ON THE US LABOR MARKET

Positive Effects of Legal Immigration in The US
Many American workers are concerned that legal immigrants who have not officially
been authorized as permanent residents are willing to work in low-wage jobs, limited benefits,
no health insurance, and no tax claims, (structure issue) which possibly make (word choice
issue) local employers or business owners reduce the US-born workforce to hire foreign-born
workers (Zavodny & Jacoby, 2013). Furthermore, most people concluded that there is an
inevitable downturn in the earnings of the US workers while there is a surplus of laborforce due to the constant movement of legal immigrants to USA (Michael & Adam, 2013).
However, the negative positions are no longer the case with the immigration issue in the US
because a great number of findings from some previous studies are provided to prove that there
is no point in continuing the argument between the US residents and authorized immigrants.
(what is the source of this information?) Specifically, a study by Michael Greenstone and
Adam Looney (2013) indicated that the legal immigration in the US do (subject/verb
agreement issue) not create negative influences on the earnings of native workers since
American and legal immigrant workers could complement each other rather than vie for the
same jobs. There are some reasons that explain why they do not have tendency to compete for
the (incorrect use of an article) similar occupations. First of all, (do not use this expression in
APA style papers) legal immigrants and US-born workers themselves (word choice issuethis
is redundant) do not possess the same skill compositions and occupational orientations. A report
(The American Enterprise Institute) (is this the title of the report?) by Madeline Zavodny and
Tamar Jacoby (2013) stated that more than half of legal immigrants who plan to work and settle
in USA are not skillful and have low educational levels. Hence, they are partly offered jobs
not requiring analysis and technical skills, while American workers work in jobs that

EFFECTS OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION ON THE US LABOR MARKET

require many professional skills of communication, analysis, technology, and management
(Zavodny & Jacoby, 2013). (how does this information align with that of low-skilled native
workers presented previously) Since 1970, the educational levels of American workers have
dramatically advanced validate the info - examples and they tend to apply for high-skilled
jobs so low-skilled jobs can easily be left for legal immigrant workers (Zavodny & Jacoby,
2013). (how is this information reconciled with the evidence that in the US a college education
in 2002 was equivalent to a high school education in 1972 and that the overall rating for US
primary and secondary education (especially in the maths and sciences) has declined from 1st to
26th position?) Differences in educational levels between authorized immigrants and US-born
workers are not only a single explanation, (this is not clear) but advantages in specific abilities
also lead to less (an article is missing) competitive labor market. For example, low-skilled
immigrants have abilities to properly work in manufacturing, maintenance, landscaping,
construction, and (an article is missing) food industry, which require physical strength, brawn
and stamina (Zavodny & Jacoby, 2013). On the contrary, American workers find themselves
productive when they work in the fields related to sales, administration and management
(Zavodny & Jacoby, 2013). Zavodny and Jacoby (2013) repetive citation )also explained that
language plays an important role in proving (that) immigrants not to take (structure issue
verb required) jobs from the US workers due to the reason that the (wordy) legal foreign-born
workers cannot use spoken and written English language better than native workers can. (was
this intended for all jobs as implied here?) Data from The American Community Survey
(2014) (I cannot find this source in your references) is provided (verb structure issue) that one
in five low-skilled immigrants speaks mother tongue, (this is not clear) and four in five
cannot speak and use English well. Those who come from English-speaking countries are more

EFFECTS OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION ON THE US LABOR MARKET

capable of properly handling and understanding almost all technical terminologies regarding the
fields in which native workers work. Conversely, legal immigrants who cannot speak English
well seem not to work with technical terms properly. (misplaced modifier) Zavodny &
Jocoby (2013) suggested that another reason that proves legal immigration not to lead (verb
structure issue) to competitiveness between American and authorized immigrant workers is
geography. Geographic distribution of legal immigrants in (an article is missing) USA is
described (structure issue) that newcomers chiefly live in or across the (incorrect use of an
article) areas where they can find the (word choice issue) fellow countrymen because residing
in a group of people who have similar cultures, languages, traditional customs and (a comma is
missing) living styles is easier and quicker for new comers to get accustomed to new
changes (structure issue) (Zavodny & Jocoby, 2013). (is the inference that immigrants form a
particular country only locate in one area of the country?) As for native workers, both lowskilled and high-skilled American workers tend to move across the country for job opportunities
and do not concentrate on (incorrect preposition) only one place (Zavodny & Jocoby, 2013).
Because of various job orientations, skill-sets, geographic distributions and abilities of
(incorrect preposition) language use, authorized immigrants do not have a part in increasing
labor market competition and negatively influencing wages of the US workers (how
accurate is this statement? Doe is seem logical to add anything new to a situation and not have
any effect?) (Zavodny & Jocoby, 2013).
In addition to the issue of wage reductions, American workers also become worried that
legal immigrants possibly take place (structure issue) of the US workers. According to (an article
is missing) Center for American Progress, legal immigrants do not substitute American workers for
some persuasive reasons. First of all, (do not use this phrase in APA style papers) a new report from

EFFECTS OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION ON THE US LABOR MARKET

10
the Partnership for a New American Economy (2011) found that wealthy authorized immigrants
from China, Japan, Italy, and etc. (incorrect structure) have founded over 350 companies that
require huge workforce (a numerical value should be provided) and create (tense issue) openings
(what type of openings) in the US. Especially (word choice issue), Forbes Company (2013)
reported that there are about 500 Fortune companies, including P&G, Pfizer, USsteel, Ebay, and
Google, were established by authorized immigrants from the late 1800s to the early 1900s and
more than 40 percent of the largest American companies belong to legal immigrants and their
next generations. (how does 200 years ago relate to current conditions? Are legal immigrants
establishing this number of companies in the 21st Century?) In terms of Forbess calculations,
these huge companies could generate 2.8 million job openings in USA, for which majority of
American workers have currently been working. (Is this present or past tense? Some of the
companies that were established in the 1800 & 1900 have ceased to exist long ago) According to
The 2010 American Community Survey by the US Census Bureau, 900 thousand small, medium and
large businesses (restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, markets, and others) that are equivalent
to 18 percent of all US businesses are under possession of legal foreign-born employers or owners.
This survey estimated that each business employed 9 to 10 staff and then (word choice issue), these
businesses generated from 3.7 million to 5.2 million jobs. (to accurately use this information, a
breakdown of the types of jobs and wages paid for these jobs is required. Justificationmany of the
jobs in restaurants, coffee shops, and cafes pay below minimum wage and expect the servers to
make up the difference in tips.) (an article is missing) Americas Society and Council of The
Americas (AS/COA) revealed that legal immigrants play an important role in fostering the US
manufacturing industry to create more jobs and to maintain current manufacturing jobs in
USA. (how is this accomplished?) A report by AS/COA in 2013 indicated that over the last 40

EFFECTS OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION ON THE US LABOR MARKET

11
years, legal immigrants have helped to keep manufacturing jobs more greatly than the US
government has expected. (structure issue) Statistically, 46 manufacturing jobs are created
when 1,000 legal foreign-born workers live in a county of the US. (what is the source of this
information) In 2013, 40 million foreign-born residents in the US totally contribute to retention
of 1.8 million manufacturing jobs, which is about 15 percent of all employment remaining in
the sector. (structure issue & what is the source of this information) It is obvious (this is not a
phrase that should be used in research writing) that foreign-born residents are having an
advantageous impact on the manufacturing field in the United States. Additionally, according to a
report entitled 2011 Popular by SurveyUnited States Bureau, (I cannot find this source in your
references) legal immigrants became self-employed or opened small grocery stores, restaurants, nail
salons and many more types of businesses where they worked as both employers and employees.
Beside (word choice issue) the creation of job opportunities, legal immigrants are also
considered a potential factor that help build up economic growth of the US, including housing
market in particular. (are job opportunities not a part of economic growth) A report by AS/COA
(date is missing & I cannot find this source in your references) predicted (because this is a
prediction, what is the evidence that this prediction is valid?) that when one legal immigrant comes
to a community, he or she could bring a 12 percent increase in the average price of housing. This
report also stated that in the US, a community consists of approximately 800,000 housing units, so
the total amount of housing property in this country increased by 96,000 dollars. From such
calculation, legal immigrants could contribute about 3,840 billion dollars to the US housing
market. (what is the evidence that this is the average for all of the US?) Legal immigrants are
also regarded as a source that accelerates the US housing market because vacant or unpaid
houses can lead to a serious drop in housing prices and freeze the housing market during

EFFECTS OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION ON THE US LABOR MARKET

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economic hard times while authorized immigrants and their families are looking for houses
could purchase these houses. (sentence structurethis is a run-on sentence) Legal immigrants
increasingly move to (an article is missing) USA and demand for more houses, which helps
construction industry in the US develop and create jobs for this industry. (what is the source of
this information)

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Negative Effects of Legal Immigration in The US
Eric A. Ruark and Matthew Graham (2011) analyzed (word choice issue) that in unskilled
or low-skilled industries (farming, landscaping, driving, construction, machine operations, and etc.
(incorrect use of a conjunction)), the poor and unskilled native workers commonly suffer from
burden of critical competition because legal immigrants to USA, who are partly unskilled, are
more likely to undercut the wages and job opportunities of low-killed native workers than
those of high-skilled workers. (structure issue) According to the (incorrect use of an article)
analysis of (an article is missing) 25 largest cities in America, legal immigrant wages were gained
less than 10 percent of native worker wages in high-skilled industry groups, for example
health-care, technology, administration, and education; yet, legal immigrant workers earned
over 10 percent of American worker wages in unskilled groups (sentence structure) (as cited in
Eric & Matthew, 2011, p. 8-9). George Borjas concluded that the legal and illegal immigration
drove down wages for the 10 percent of the un-skilled American workers by 7.4 percent between
1980 and 2000; and if legal and illegal immigration rate keeps on and adds to copious unskilled
workers, negative outcomes for poor and low-skilled native workers are getting worse and worse
(as cited in Eric & Matthew, 2011, p. 10). Data from U.S. Census Bureau, Pew Research Center
has showed that in 2009, roughly 35 percent of authorized immigrants and 51 percent of illegal
immigrants do (tense issue) not have high school degree (plural form required) while less than 10
percent of native residents are (tense issue) without high school diploma. Below-mentioned
statistics (what statistcs are referred to) revealed that immigrants contribute to (an article is
missing) surplus of low-skilled workforce (word choice issue). Consequently, Eric A. Ruark and
Matthew Graham (2011) concluded that if low-skilled workers increase more and more (structure
issue) and are not employed, the US government has to expand financial aids, especially welfare

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14
programs, for the low-skilled groups. In 2004, each low-skilled immigrant family utilized at least
$19,600 in welfare programs than it paid in taxes (structure issue) (Eric & Matthew, 2011).
Through welfare dependence and wage losses, low-skilled American workers can pay a heavy price
for the surplus of unskilled workforce (word choice issue) partly caused low-skilled legal
immigrants. (structure issue)
Secondary sources should be use sparingly in APA style papers.

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Conclusion
It is critical that the effects of legal immigration be identified on (incorrect preposition)
various aspects so that native-born residents (why is this restricted to this particular group?) can
comprehend what good and bad effects legal foreign-born workers possibly produce. Additionally,
future researchers can find the most suitable solutions to deal with the negative effects of legal
immigration in the US and maintain the stability of the US labor market. This paper includes the
(incorrect article) two-sided effects of legal immigration on the US labor market on the basis of
working on findings of some previous studies and reports. (structure issue) Finally, there is little
evidence that low-skilled legal immigrants and native workers compete with one another for
low-skilled jobs because the former are willing to work under no tax claims, no health
insurance and low wages while the latter demand adequate profits from jobs. (how does this
produce a lack of competition for jobs? By definition competition would indicate that someone is
willing to receive less compensation than another person to do the same job.) The employers can
reduce employment cost including tax, heath and labor insurance and others when they
employ the low-skilled immigrants, which creates high competitiveness between low-skilled,
legal immigrants and native workers. (this contradicts your previous statement) On the contrary,
(to what does this refer?) there are (subject/verb agreement issue) much more evidence to prove the
(word choice issue) legal immigration can result in many advantages for the US labor market, such
as job creations, mutual complementarity, and economy (word form issue) expansion. Although
there are still several inevitable (word choice issue), serious effects in some situations, legal
immigration has brought tangible benefits for the US and has also been (an article is missing)
essential catalyst in accelerating the US labor market.

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In terms of limitations in this research, the labor market and economy in (an article is
missing) USA have recently been (word choice issue) changed and there are few studies on the
negative effects of legal immigration on the US labor market. Constant change in labor market and
lack of researches (research is a collective noun) on the negative aspects of legal immigration can
lead to drawing shallow interpretation about the issues of immigration. Legal immigration can
cause a wide range of effects on the US labor market in various ways. Hence, future researches on
the harmful effects of legal immigration should be conducted to seek solutions to reduce or
eliminate these effects that worsen the economy and society of the US. For instance, the US
government should modify the immigration policies to permit only highly educated
immigrants to have documented paper. (critically think about this option!)

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References
Ruak, E. A. Eric, A. R. & Matthew, G. (2011). Immigration, Poverty and Low-Wage Earners: The
Harmful Effect of Unskilled immigrants on American Workers. Retrieved from
http://www.fairus.org/docs/poverty_rev.pdf
Jack, M. & Eric, A. R. (2010). The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Tax
payers. Retrieved from http://www.fairus.org/site/DocServer/USCostStudy_2010.pdf?
docID=4921
Card, D. (2009). Immigration and Inequality. American Economic Review, Papers and
Proceedings, 99(2), 1-21. Retrieved from http://davidcard.berkeley.edu/papers/immigration-andinequality.pdf
Joseph, G. A & Card, D. (1991). Immigration, Trade and Labor Market: The Effects of Immigration
on The Labor Market Outcomes of Less-skilled Natives. Retrieved from
http://www.nber.org/books/abow91-1
Peri, G. (2009). The Effects of Immigration on Productivity: Evidence from U.S. States. Retrieved
from http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economicletter/2010/august/effect-immigrants-us-employment-productivity/
Orrenius, P. M, & Zavodny, M. (2013). Immigrants in The U.S. Labor Market. Federal Reserve
Bank of Dallas, 1306, 1-10.
Zavodny, M. & Jacoby, T. (2013). Filling The Gap: Less-skilled Immigration in a Changing
Economy. Immigration Works in USA, 1-20.
Jacob, L. V. & Gretchen, C. & Mayuri, V. (2013). Immigration and The Revival of American Cities:
From Preserving Manufacturing Jobs to Strengthening The Housing Market. Retrieved from

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http://www.renewoureconomy.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/revival-of-americancities.pdf
Michael, G. & Adam, L. (2013). What New Immigrants Could Mean for American Wages.
Retrieved from http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/jobs/posts/2013/08/02-immigration-wagesgreenstone-looney
The United States Census Bureau. (2014). Close to Half of New Immigrants Report High EnglishLanguage Speaking Ability, Census Bureau Reports. Retrieved from
http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2014/cb14-105.html

Ensure that all of your sources have citations in the text and references in that section
Reference entries are by the authors last names.
References are not in alphabetical order.
The validity of some of the sources is questionable (e.g., renewourcountry.ort, immigration
works in USA, etc.)
What is the purpose of your research?
When you evaluate and interpret information you should identify the support and lack of
support for the researchers conclusions.