There is a raging debate regarding whether America should be welcoming to refugees. There are many considerations ranging from national security to humanitarian. A new study by Harvard University’s George Borjas and the Center for Monetary and Financial Studies’ Joan Moras analyzes evidence from four earlier refugee surges and reminds us that there are important economic considerations as well.
As indicated by the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Borjas is generally viewed as an inflation skeptic. His work is frequently cited as evidence that immigration erodes wages for lower skilled American workers. Among other things, this latest study analyzes the Mariel boatlift, which brought Cubans to Miami in large numbers in nineteen eighty.
It also looks at refugee surges taking place in other nations, including the surge of Jewish emigres to Israel as the Soviet Union was collapsing. The study indicates that the Mariel boatlift increased Miami’s population by eight percent, but increased the number of male workers without a high school diploma by thirty two percent. Not surprisingly, the incomes of low wage male workers in Miami declined. Other workers saw their wages rise.
