The NYT seriously misrepresented the restrictions on immigration facing more and less educated workers in the United States and elsewhere in an article today. At one point the article quotes a demographer asserting that "governments give a green light to high-skilled migrants, but put speed bumps in front of others, ...there’s a stark contrast.” It presents no contrasting views. In fact, the United States much more severely restricts the flows of highly educated immigrants than less-educated immigrants, it just uses different mechanisms. In the case of highly educated immigrants, the government at least partially enforces laws that prohibit employers from hiring immigrants at wages that are lower than what citizens would be willing to work for. There are no newspapers, hospitals, universities, or law firms that bring in large numbers of undocuments professionals and pay them half of the prevailing wage in their occupation. Such an institution would almost certainly be shut down, with the employers facing prosecution. By contrast, restaurants, hotels, construction firms and other employers of less-educated workers generally have little to fear from the government, even if their entire workforce consists of undocumented workers employed at salaries far below what native born workers would demand to do the same jobs. While enforcement of employer restrictions against hiring immigrant workers limits the number of high-skilled workers who enter the country, the number of less-skilled workers is limited by harassment and insecurity. These workers know that they risk deportation at any time. The insecurity and harassment make the prospect of working in the United States far less attractive to less-skilled immigrants than it would otherwise be. However, it is wrong to say that more skilled workers are welcomed with open arms. The numbers that are allowed to work in the United States are treated far better than less-skilled immigrants (they would not come here otherwise), but the absolute number of less-skilled immigrants is far larger than the number of highly-skilled immigrants. This is the result of a conscious policy to protect highly educated workers even as less-educated workers are subjected to the full force of international competition.
--Dean Baker