The number of immigrants will be determined by our national interests, not the other way around. We don't have a merit based immigration system. Only 12% come here due to merit. The rest come here based on familial ties. 20% of legal immigrant heads of household lack even a high school diploma. We are importing poverty.
In December 2014 there were 18 million immigrants (legal and illegal) living in the country who had arrived since January 2000.2 But job growth over this period was just 9.3 million — half of new immigration.3
Between two-thirds and three-fourths of the new arrivals are estimated to be legal immigrants.4 Of the new arrivals 89 percent were potential workers 16 and older.
Job growth has not come close to matching new immigration and natural population increase; as a result, the labor force participation rate (the share working or looking for work) of native-born Americans 16 to 65 shows a significant long-term decline.
The share of native-born Americans 16 to 65 in the labor force was 77 percent in December 2000, 75 percent in December 2007, and 72 percent in December 2014.6 The number of working-age natives not in the labor force (neither working nor looking for work) increased by 13 million from December 2000 to December 2014.7
If we look at the period after the Great Recession began, 7.8 million new immigrants arrived from 2008 to 2014, yet net job growth was just two million from the beginning of 2008 to the end of 2014.8
If we look at the period before the Great Recession, from January 2000 to December 2007, 11.1 million immigrants arrived and job growth was still only 7.3 million.In addition to the 18 million new immigrants, the native-born working-age population (ages 16 to 65) grew by 16.5 million since 2000; if we count natives over age 65, total native population growth was 25.2 million since 2000
