Can immigration reform reach the finish line?

Current conventional wisdom in Washington, DC is that immigration reform can’t happen. The House of Representatives is too divided, some say, for anything to get passed. Given my long history working for broad immigration reform, you’d think I would be in that same camp – pessimistic that Congress will never be able to put the past behind them and move forward on this important issue. But I continue to remain optimistic.

This time around, things feel different. Rather than running into the wind, the wind seems to be at our backs as immigrant advocates, like myself, continue to push this issue towards the finish line.

Today, one of the major differences compared to back in 2006-07 is more broad-based support for the principle that immigrants boost the economy and are major contributors to US competitiveness. Giovanni Peri and countless other economists have recently argued that “on net, immigrants expand the US economy’s productive capacity, stimulate investment, and promote specialization that in the long run boosts productivity.”

Immigrants also contribute to our workforce competitiveness by filling gaps in the labour market. A report by the American Enterprise Institute argues that lesser-skilled immigrants complement Americans rather than compete with them:

“Low-skilled immigrants contribute to economic growth by relocating to booming areas that need workers. They free up Americans to work in better jobs that require the communications and managerial skills that are Americans’ comparative advantage. Low-skilled immigration reduces the prices of the goods and services consumed by Americans. And it preserves American jobs by slowing the movement of companies overseas.”

A recent study from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute found that a similar phenomenon occurs for high-skilled immigrants:

“Every foreign-born student who graduates from a US university with an advanced degree and stays to work in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) has been shown to create on average 2.62 jobs for American workers, often because they help lead in innovation, research and development.”

Other studies have shown that adding 100 H-1B workers results in an additional 183 jobs among US natives.

These facts alone, coupled with an ageing US workforce, show the need for Congress to move forward on immigration reform in 2013. Our current immigration system hinders rather than promotes job creation and economic growth in the US. Faster economic growth is needed to get millions of Americans back to work and immigration reform is part of the solution.

So, when you hear someone claim that immigration reform can’t happen, don’t buy it and keep positive. The opportunity to fix our broken immigration system and help the economy is too great to pass up.

Author: Randel Johnson is Senior Vice-President, Labor, Immigration and Employee Benefits at the US Chamber of Commerce; he is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Migration.

Image: A 12 year old boy watches a video after receiving proof of U.S. citizenship in San Francisco REUTERS/Robert Galbraith