Meeting the Economy's Labor Needs through Immigration : Rationale and Challenges. A Rand Note / Georges Vernez and Kevin McCarthy.

Immigration has historically played an important role in supplying United States labor needs. However, current immigration and immigrant policies emphasize noneconomic selection criteria, such as family reunification, for determining the annual volume and characteristics of legal immigrants. Declining United States fertility rates and an increasing need for professional and skilled labor has prompted policymakers to consider changes in immigrant policies that would respond to the labor market needs of the economy. A greater emphasis on labor market considerations could meet changing demands for labor, minimize negative distributional effects, and speed up the economic and social adjustment of immigrants and their children. However, the following major factors must be considered in developing effective policies: (1) policies must be flexible in order to respond to rapidly changing labor market conditions; (2) policymakers need an informed basis for developing selection criteria that will ensure a match between immigration and manpower needs while avoiding short-term displacement of native workers; and (3) the absence of good information continues to make policy design and evaluation problematic. Statistical data are presented in eight tables and six graphs. An 81-item bibliography is appended. (FMW)

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