U.S. immigration policy has permitted the entry of millions of low-skill immigrants, and, as Rector explains, immigrants with low skill levels have a high probability of poverty and receipt of welfare benefits and services. “In terms of increased poverty and expanded government expenditure, this importation of poorly educated immigrants has had roughly the same effect as the addition of ten and a half million native-born high school drop-outs,” he writes.

Any immigration reform should take into account the effects that the policy will have on poverty in the U.S., according to Rector. “U.S. immigration policy should encourage high-skill immigration and strictly limit low-skill immigration,” he writes.  “In general, government policy should limit immigration to those who will be net fiscal contributors, avoiding those who will increase poverty and impose new costs on overburdened U.S. taxpayers.”

Read Importing Poverty: Immigration and Poverty in the United States by Robert Rector