Confronting the Immigration Issue
 Immigration is one of the most contentious issues in America today. AnalysisOnline has partnered with the University of Arizona's Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy and the Arizona Daily Star to develop this special section on immigration.
The Udall Center 's Immigration Initiative aims to promote reasoned dialogue on the immigration  debate and foster a deeper understanding of the tradeoffs involved in formulating immigration policy so that the key elements of a realistically enforceable system are identified.
Judy Gans is the program manager for immigration policy at the University of Arizona's Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy. See Gans' primer on the the economics of immigration, which includes a discussion on the impact of immigration on Arizona, a primary gateway for immigrants from Mexico and Central America. Click here for the accompanying Power Point Presentation.
 The Arizona Daily Star features a special online section, Border News, that compiles the latest wire news stories and local stories on the immigration issue. Nowhere is immigration more immediately felt than in the Southwestern border regions. The Arizona Daily Star seeks to cover the story thoroughly and objectively.
"Congress must seize the immigration issue, strip away the emotion and rhetoric and legislate solid, comprehensive immigration reform that works for all parties affected by immigration: businesses, consumers, legal and illegal workers and taxpayers," according to an editorial by the Arizona Daily Star, analyzing the symposium. At right, Arizona Daily Star Editor and Publisher John Humenik speaks at the Immigration Symposium.
AO Resources
Gordon Hanson, Professor of Economics, University of California, San Diego, discusses the economics of immigration. In the aggregate, the net economic gains and losses of immigration to the U.S. economy is minimal. The net income gains from immigration are about .2 percent of GDP. The net fiscal costs of immigration are about .3 percent of gross domestic product. On balance, immigration lowers the U.S. GDP by about .1 percent per year. Statistically,  accounting for margin of error, this is close to zero discusses the economics of immigration. In the aggregate, the net economic gains and losses of immigration to the U.S. economy is minimal. The net income gains from immigration are about .2 percent of GDP. The net fiscal costs of immigration are about .3 percent of gross domestic product. On balance, immigration lowers the U.S. GDP by about .1 percent per year. Statistically, accounting.
Dean Yang of the University of Michigan places America's immigration issues in the context of the worldwide phenomenon of mass migration. The difference in earnings potential between the developing world and the developed world is stark: Migrants can increase their earnings 5-20 times by moving to the developed world. With such extreme economic differences, the incentive to migrate to richer nations is overwhelming.
Dowell Myers, professor of urban planning and demography at USC, believes the future prosperity of the baby boom generation is directly tied to the economic success of the state's younger immigrant population. Myers discussed research from his forthcoming book, Immigrants and Boomers: Forging a New Social Contract for the Future of America, at a recent Communications Institute Symposium and in a Los Angeles Times interview.
Myers also recently addressed the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary. Myers discussed immigration demographics and the coming crisis in Social Security as a result of declining birth rates in the United States. See a complete transcript of Myers' remarks here.
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