Spanish

IRA N. GANG AND ANNE MORRISON PIEHL

879 words

29 January 2009

The Star-Ledger

FINAL

13

English

(c) 2009 The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved.

Eighteen months ago, Gov. Jon Corzine appointed a blue ribbon panel to study immigrants in New Jersey.

When it finally releases its recommendations early next month, it will be in a country much transformed since

it began its work. Fiscal hard times mean that the climate for immigrants, especially the low-skilled among

them, is chillier than it has been in decades.

Now more than ever, it's important to note how significant immigrants are to New Jersey - particularly

economically.

In a recent study, we set out to document the extent to which the state economy depends on immigrant

workers. What we learned surprised us. According to the U.S. Census, one in five (or 1.7 million out of a

total of 8.7 million) New Jersey residents was born outside of the United States. Only New York and

California have larger proportions of the foreign-born. Immigrants make up an even greater share (almost 28

percent) of the state's work force. Of the $207 billion New Jersey residents earned in 2006, immigrant

workers earned $47 billion.

And while Homeland Security reports that as of 2007, about 470,000 or almost one-third of all New Jersey's

immigrants were undocumented, between 2000 and 2007 New Jersey's undocumented population grew

more slowly (32 percent) than the national average (39 percent).

Once clustered in the state's northern cities, immigrants today live in every part of New Jersey: from the

Indian computer engineer raising children in South Brunswick to the Guatemalan teenager harvesting

cranberries in the Pinelands; from the Italian dressmaker mending hems in Montclair to the Haitian father

driving a taxi in Camden; from the Lebanese professor leading a seminar at Princeton to the Dominican

journalist reporting in Jersey City; from the Korean chemist at her lab in Plainsboro to the Brazilian janitor

mopping floors in Riverside. Immigrants make New Jersey run.

Certain features of New Jersey's immigrant population stand out nationally. Foremost is their diversity.

Among the state's foreign-born, no single nation of origin dominates. Hailing from nearly 100 nations, New

Jersey's immigrants speak more than 165 languages. Of these, more than half (54 percent) report speaking

English "very well."

It's true that New Jersey's foreign-born workers are overrepresented among low-skill occupations. Janitors,

home-care workers, landscapers, housekeepers, hotel and restaurant workers, construction laborers and

taxi drivers, they scrape by on low wages, limited or nonexistent benefits, and often-negligible safety or

wage regulation. Enforcement of labor laws already on the books in New Jersey would protect these workers

from exploitation and help ensure that all workers, native and foreign-born, have a solid wage floor to stand

on.

As much as immigrant workers dominate certain low-skill industries, they are also overrepresented at the

opposite end of the earnings and skills spectrum. An astounding 40 percent of New Jersey's advanced

degree holders were born outside of the United States. Their presence draws employers to New Jersey,

which trails only California and New York in the number of H1-B visas for high-skilled, foreign-born workers

every year. As scientists and doctors, professors and engineers, foreign-born workers cement New Jersey's

reputation as a center of innovation and technology. Additionally, according to the Federal Small Business

Association, a fifth of entrepreneurs statewide are immigrants responsible for creating thousands of jobs.

Moreover, it's possible to read too much into the distinction between "legal" and "illegal" immigrants.

Nationally, as many as half of undocumented immigrants simply overstayed their visas, rather than sneaking

across a U.S. border. In New Jersey, the share is likely higher. The rhetoric makes it easy to forget that

every undocumented immigrant is potentially documented. Consider that one in 10 of today's legal