Understanding the Economic Consequences of Mexican Immigration to the United States

Abstract

Recent decades have witnessed dramatic increases in U.S. immigration, especially from Mexico. In a new book, Mexican Immigration to the United States, George Borjas continues a long line of research that articulates how this rising tide of immigration is linked to our national well-being. This edited book brings together a diverse set of articles written by some of the nation's best economists and presented in 2005 at a conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts. No doubt, it is an important book to read if one is interested in understanding the supply side concerns of economists interested in immigration. Yet despite my own keen interest in this topic, the book as a whole only narrowly addresses the economic effects of Mexican immigration because it fails to incorporate sociological and other perspectives. Such a missed opportunity suggests how much more needs to be done to understand the economic outcomes of immigrants in U.S. labor markets.