A new study says immigrant workers in California help increase wages and job opportunities for U.S. born workers. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has the story.
The Public Policy Institute of California study says immigrants bring different skills to the workplace than U.S. born workers. The study's author, Giovonni Peri, says as a result immigrants complement U.S. born workers rather than compete with them. He says that allows native workers with the same education level to take more specialized and better paying jobs.
Peri: U.S. born workers without a high school degree, there is a 0.2 percent increase in their wages, while workers with a high school degree or more, they gained significantly more as a consequence of immigration, between 3 percent and 6.7 percent of their real wages.
Giovanni says the people whose wages are hurt are other immigrant workers who have been in the U.S. longer. The study looked at census data from 1960 to 2004.
Amy Isackson, KPBS News.
