Immigration to the United States has brought with it a higher standard of living for the American people and increased employment, according to an economic report released last night by the National Committee on Immigration policy, which is headed by Earl Harrison, former U.S. Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization.
The report points out that these facts are important in the light of present moves to liberalize immigration quotas. It adds: “Fears among Americans that immigration tends to displace native-born workers from their jobs and to create unemployment are not supported by scientific analysis. Immigrants have not only as workers increased the labor supply in this country but have as consumers increased the demand for more goods and thus the total number of workers needed.”
Citing the experience of Canada and Australia, the report asserts that the economic problems of the two countries “are believed to be rooted chiefly in the scarcity of their population.” It also declares that the United States is “entering upon a period of declining growth of population,” and that “American prosperity has in the past always been linked with an expanding population.”
The report was prepared by Prof. Henry Miller, assistant director of the Social Research Laboratory of City College, and Dr. Carolyn Zeleny, research assistant of the Committee. The Committee is already preparing another study on the relationship between immigration and population.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
