USA Green Card Immigration Blog

‘Virtual’ Immigration Continued Rising During Recession – Real Time Economics – WSJ.

The global economic downturn spurred declines in physical immigration — the movement of people across borders — in 2008 and 2009. But a new Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas report says “virtual” immigration — moving the work rather than the workers — continued to grow.

“Most likely, the difference stems from the jobs the two types of immigrants typically do,” authors Michael Cox, Richard Alm and Justyna Dymerska write in the Dallas Fed’s Economic Letter. “Physical immigrants work in construction and other highly cyclical industries. Virtual immigrants are more likely to work in the services economy. It has traditionally been less sensitive than goods to cyclical fluctuations, largely because services aren’t subject to the kind of inventory bulges that make goods production unstable.”

Still, virtual immigration increased at a slower pace during the downturn. “Hard times might pressure companies to cut costs, quickening offshoring’s pace,” they write. “At the same time, companies might pull back on offshoring because of cuts in IT budgets and plentiful labor close to home.”   For instance, India’s exports in software and IT services are forecast to continue expanding. But the projected growth rate of 17% for 2009 is less than half the pace of the prior four years.

In July 2008, the Los Angeles County had brought into effect strict federal verification rules to scrutinize documents submitted by the beneficiaries covered under Medi-Cal, the public healthcare program for low-income residents. These rules were enforced not only to deny health insurance to illegal immigrants, but also to ensure that legal citizens are covered under its umbrella. This check is done by verifying the documents submitted by people who apply for the healthcare policy. These documents should prove their citizenship or legal status.

Leonardo Rincon, a health worker in Los Angeles, and his colleagues have initiated the verifying procedure in their county. According to Deborah Walker, the Medi-Cal director, they haven’t yet identified any illegal immigrant who has been enjoying the benefits as a legal resident. Between July 2008 and February 2009, only less than 1% of the applicants had not submitted the necessary documents, which they eventually did produce. Even among new Medi-Cal applicants, cases of fraudulent entry were very few.

A few healthcare officials feel that the amount of fund and time invested in this verification is not offering any payback. There is also an on-going debate on curtailing new public health benefits to illegal immigrants. US citizens have access to full public health benefits, while illegal immigrants are entitled only to pregnancy and emergency care.

Members of Congress have suggested a few guidelines to improve the verification method. Applicants have to produce photo identification proof or biometric ID cards. Other methods include checks with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s immigration database and so on.

The purpose of implementing strict immigrant verification process is to discourage illegal immigrants from availing health benefits, which in turn would save huge amounts of money. There are immigrant advocates who agree to the contrary. They feel that these regulations are not cost-effective and also deprive US citizens of their healthcare policy in case they cannot produce relevant documents. Two federal studies validated their point by proving that these rules led to huge administrative costs.

In spite of recession, there has been a constant rise in Massachusetts’s immigrant population. The rise in immigrants in this state is in contrast to the national trend, which shows a decrease in foreign-born residents after so many decades.

According to the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the Census Bureau on 3 million households nationwide, the number of immigrants rose to 937,200 last year from 913,957 the previous year, States such as California, Florida, and Rhode Island on the other hand, have seen a decrease in the immigrant population.

So the increase in the immigrant population in the Bay State, though a modest 2.5%, has bewildered researchers and advocates. In Framingham alone, the rise in immigrants was almost a quarter of the total town’s population, much to the surprise of researchers.

Researchers have put across various theories to explain this trend. The performance of the state’s economy than other states and the exclusion of the departures from Massachusetts by the survey are some of the reasons cited. Some point out that, immigrants in Massachusetts who account for 14 percent of the state’s population are highly educated and are less likely to leave as they have an advantage even if the economy is not faring well.

Moreover, the population of illegal immigrants is also very less when compared to other states. Only one in five Massachusetts immigrants is here illegally. This is well below the national average of one in three.

Other reason for the immigrant influx in Massachusetts is the welcoming environment. For instance, Governor Deval Patrick has ordered a yearlong study on ways to integrate immigrants.

Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University is of the opinion that the availability of work was one of the main reasons that immigrants stayed in Massachusetts.

Illegal Immigration from Mexico Hits Lowest Level in Decade – WSJ.com.

The recession in the US has impacted the flow of Mexican illegal immigration into the United States over the past year, but there is no evidence to suggest that the rate of return to Mexico by illegals living in the US has increased.

The current Mexican immigrant population in the United States is about 11.5 million, down from an estimated recent high of 12 million.

The trend should not be constrained to Mexican immigration alone.  Immigration flows across the globe have been affected by the global economic downturn.

Annual immigration to the US has ebbed and flowed through the years, with the most recent drop (by one third) occurring after the September 11th terrorist attacks.