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Hofstra News Outlet Covers Report on Immigration and the Economy on Long Island

Posted December 2, 2010 by Ted Hesson
Categories: Reports

The Long Island Report, a student news organization run by Hofstra University students, published an article on November 19 covering “The Changing Profile of Long Island’s Economy: How U.S.-born workers have fared as immigration has grown,” a report by the New York City-based Fiscal Policy Institute.

Looking at data from three select years when the Long Island economy was booming, the report showed that immigrants didn’t take jobs away from most Long Islanders during those years. I grabbed my video camera and interviewed researcher David Kallick on the day that the report was released (click here for the video clips).

Here’s a sample of the coverage from the Long Island Report:

Contrary to the popular myth of “They took our jobs,” increasing numbers of immigrants today are moving directly to the suburbs and many of them are professionals. They might prescribe your medicine, counsel your psyche, sell your house or even buy it from you. They are also the reason why Long Island’s economy is experiencing growth in a period of economic decline.

The Fiscal Policy Institute this Wednesday released a report that profiles immigrants in the New York State economy. It sheds a new light on the role of immigrants in the Long Island economy.

The immigrant population in Long Island has been increasing since 1970, although it has remained steady since the economic peak in 2007. Today it makes up 16 percent of the Long Island population.

Busting the stereotypes of immigrants

The total labor force in Long Island has been steady at 1.4 million workers since 1990. However the number of foreign-born workers is growing, while the number of US-born workers is shrinking.

Essentially, foreign-born labor is keeping the labor force steady in Long Island.

David Dyssegaard Kallick, a senior fellow of the Fiscal Policy Institute, said that a third of the economic growth in Long Island is due to immigrant’s economic output.

“The immigrants are a crucial part of growth in the Long Island economy,” he said.

But what might surprise readers, is the finding that 53 percent of recent immigrants work in white-collar jobs. “Immigrants are by no means all low-wage workers, they are distributed throughout the economy, ” Kallick said.

Pearl Kamer, a chief economist at the Long Island Association of businesses. supported the results of the study.

“Immigrants in Long Island are entrepreneurial. Sixteen percent are in executive or managerial jobs, 22 percent are in professional jobs such as doctors, engineers and lawyers,” she said. Another 26 percent are nurses, therapists and pharmacists.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Tags : economy, fiscal policy institute, hofstra, jobs, long island report, reports

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