Immigration and Equal Access to Economic Prosperity Economist Giovanni Peri on Poverty
In this video, economist Giovanni Peri discusses how providing
legal status could help lift immigrants in the U.S. out of
poverty. Immigrants, he says, often take jobs that pay relatively
little and are at a high risk of living in poverty at least for
the first generation. While some argue that immigrants take jobs
from native workers, Peri’s research finds that in fact immigrant
workers push native workers higher up on the wage ladder.
Peri is Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at UC
Davis and a Faculty Affiliate of the Center for Poverty Research.
He leads the interdisciplinary Temporary Migration Cluster, a
research network convened to develop innovative
multi-disciplinary research on international migration.
Giovanni Peri received his degree in Economics from UC Berkeley
in 1998. His research focuses on the determinants of
international migrations and their impact on labor markets,
productivity, and investments.
1140 Social Sciences & Humanities Building
Davis, CA
Those who come to the United States looking for work compete with
some groups of native-born workers but complement others. Since
wages and the local poverty rate play a part in how many arrive,
it is a challenge to quantify the effect they in turn have on
both, and whether they push native workers below the poverty
line.
