ABSTRACT
Unemployment and underemployment are trends becoming more noticeable as the twentieth century draws to a close. Eighteen million new jobs were created in the United States during the expansionary 1980s but, ominously, structural unemployment—the seeming base level in our society—was redefined upward from 4.5 to 5.5 percent of the workforce. The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) in Washington, DC, focuses on how immigration affects the number of US residents without health care insurance. A vocal minority of wealthy contributors to both major political parties, representing left and right, have forged an alliance in support of high levels of immigration. Pro-immigration activists including the National Lawyers Association and "many Jewish groups", according to Washington Jewish Week, engaged in a "concerted lobbying campaign" to preserve the current refugee and other immigrant flows. The principal beneficiaries of immigration are the immigrants themselves and employers who benefit from cheap labor.
