How High-Skilled Immigrants May Hurt Workers and Help Consumers

High-skilled immigrants hurt tech-industry workers in the 1990s and helped U.S. consumers, a pertinent finding at a time when America's migration policies might be headed for change.

President Donald Trump's administration hasn't detailed how it will handle high-skilled immigration, but based on a draft executive order, the administration may push companies to try to hire Americans first and make it more difficult for lower-paid roles to qualify for H-1B skilled-worker visas. The study below is one in a long list of visa-related economic work that could help to inform how such policies shape up. We've also summed up research on where undocumented immigrants tend to live, the future of economic growth, and consumers' reactions to income surprises. Finally, we take a look at Millenials' moving patterns.

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Skilled immigrants have a mixed effect on the industries where they tend to work, a new National Bureau of Economic Research paper finds. The researchers focus on H-1B visas, which are reserved for specialty workers and are heavily used by technology companies, during the Internet boom years of 1994 to 2001. Without immigration in that category, American computer scientists would have seen higher wages to the tune of 2.6 percent to 5.1 percent and would have enjoyed 6.1 percent to 10.8 percent higher employment, they find. On the other hand, U.S. consumers would have paid more for technology goods and companies would have missed out on stronger profits.

The model is "far too simple" to base future immigration policy around, the authors warn. But it does suggest that unlimited high-skill immigration, such as awarding green cards to all foreign students attending American universities, could carry drawbacks for U.S. workers, and benefits to consumers.