Job Seekers or Job Stealers? The Truth Behind Immigrants and Employment

Abstract

This paper delves into the longstanding issue of antipathy towards immigrants and its historical context. The author highlights the recurring theme of fear and distrust towards newcomers in global history, then shifts the focus to the United States, examining the impact of immigration waves, both past and present, on the nation's employment landscape. The central objective is to address the prevailing sentiment that immigrants are responsible for "stealing jobs" from native-born Americans. To achieve this goal, a data-driven approach is employed, utilizing statistical analysis to explore the relationship between the foreign-born population and the unemployment rates of native citizens in different U.S. states. The independent variable, the ratio of foreign-born residents to the total population, is examined alongside the dependent variable, the unemployment rate of native citizens. Through a series of visualizations and regression models, a nuanced perspective is presented on this issue. The analysis acknowledges the presence of a correlation between immigrant population ratios and native unemployment rates but emphasizes the need to consider a multitude of other contributing factors, such as education, age distribution, and labor market policies.