Wall Street Journal Says Immigrants Create Jobs
11/27/2006
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The Wall Street Journal is touting a new study,[American Made: The Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Professionals on U.S. Competitiveness,, PDF] released under the auspices of the National Venture Capital Association, that says that immigrants create jobs. [Immigrant Entrepreneurs |New evidence that newcomers create jobs and wealth, November 26, 2006 ]

The number of jobs created by these immigrant entrepreneurs is said to be 220,000—you might want to compare that the with the number of illegals, the numbers of Americans unemployed as a result of mass immigration, or reflect on the fact that immigrant entrepreneurs tend to create jobs for other immigrants. (Immigrants do, of course, create jobs in the "parable of the broken window" sense that if harm is done, then someone has to be paid to fix it, such as law enforcement, corrections, and harassed budget analysts who are trying to figure out where the money is coming from to pay for all these jobs that have been created. )

The study is done by immigration enthusiast Stuart Anderson, who has peddled other immigrant-friendly studies, and was briefly employed by the Bush administration as an “Executive Associate Commissioner, Office of Policy and Planning” for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Then the Journal starts on H-1b Visa holders, who aren't entrepreneurs, but indentured servants, and who can't create jobs, but only take them, at lower rates than Americans charge. Apparently the numbers of H-1b Visas are settled, not by "market demand" but by "the political mood of Congress. "

After praising a plan by Republican John Shadegg to let in more H-1Bs (Shadegg is good on immigration generally, but has a C Minus rating from Americans for Better Immigration on this one issue) the say what a shame it was that Shadegg's GOP colleagues "were more interested in using the immigration issue to help demagogue their way into the minority. They'd have been better off embracing immigration as a major source of American economic vitality."

As far as I can tell, it's Bush that wants amnesty, but the American people aren't interested. A simple way of putting this is the way Stephen Dinan did in the Washington Times:Public, Bush split on illegals.[June 7, 2006 ]

Really, the only jobs that are being created are on the Wall Street Journal editorial page itself, and in the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives.

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