Race to the Top – Education and Immigration Policy

As 2,000 anti-immigrant protesters marched in Washington DC to oppose the Senate-proposed immigration reform bill, they wore red T-shirts proclaiming “Protect American Jobs, No Amnesty!”  Former Congressman Allan West spoke at the event saying, “Take care of Americans first.  Get Americans back to work. Get our children back in colleges and universities.”  Modern anti-immigrant activists commonly paint immigrants as a threat to the local working population.  Republican Congressman Mo Brooks recently repeated the mantra, asserting “These are American jobs for American citizens.”  This type of jobs-based xenophobia is not unique to the United States.

Recently, the conservative candidate contesting the presidential election in November in Chile, Pablo Longuiera, went on national television asserting that illegal immigrants in Chile take jobs away from Chileans.  More extreme groups such as the Northern League in Italy and UKIP in the United Kingdom have also made similar assertions when attacking immigration.  The fact that empirical research ^{(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)} overwhelmingly contravenes this assertion has had little impact on the public debate.  In fact, research now indicates that job displacement resulting from immigration actually increases the upward mobility of native workers.  By filling jobs at the “low” end of the occupational structure, immigrants create opportunities and incentives for native workers in higher occupational tiers.  In a perceptive analysis, Hiroshi Motomura, notes that any job displacement caused by immigration among native workers is a reflection more on the failure of educational policy than a failure of immigration policy.  This insight bears repeating.

What Professor Motomura points out is that potential labor displacement of native workers is the result of a lack of upward mobility opportunities.  In the United States, the effect of fully grasping this reality would be drastic.  Instead of clamoring to shut the borders and expel immigrants, threatened communities would be demanding the opportunity to advance in their own society.  When speaking at the anti-immigrant rally former Congressman Allen West inadvertently hit the nail on the head; “Get our children back in colleges and universities.”  If immigrants are displacing US workers, the fault lies in our own failure to educate and prepare our children and workforce in general to compete.  For example, if a laborer from El Salvador is really taking a job from a person born in Arizona; that implies the educational system in Arizona is no better than that in El Salvador. 

The global mobility of capital, off-shoring and outsourcing, all show no signs of abating.  This means that US workers will have to compete globally regardless of the government’s ability to drive out internal competition from immigrants.  Due to high costs of living and expected living standards in developed countries, competitive advantage in countries like the US lies in having a highly skilled workforce.  This is achieved through education. 

Therefore, instead of spending an additional $6.5 billion on border enforcement, as the Senate reform bill proposes, that money should be funneled into education.  Some organizations assert that the failure of the US educational system has reached crisis levels.  US students are less prepared for higher education.  US employers are finding it more difficult to find US employees with the skills needed.  School drop outs are a tax burden and at higher risk of being involved in crime.  Even the Armed Services are suffering, as one-third of high school graduates who are eligible to apply score too low on Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery to apply.  The result is a stark irony.  While politicians rail against immigrants as a burden on public finance, a source of crime and a general detriment to US society, the reality is just the opposite.    

Reforming the US educational system could spark a race to the top in US society.  By better educating the young people born in the US, they would not be forced to compete with immigrants from less fortunate countries where the educational system is weak.  A strong educational system would not only allow the native workforce to be more dynamic and upwardly mobile, but could serve to integrate future generations of immigrant children.  Instead of racing to the bottom by cutting costs and squeezing budgets or building bureaucratic barriers and physical fences to ward off global competition, the United States should do everything is its power to prepare its society by providing the best education available.