Deportations by Aren't Good for Much of Anybody

Much has been made of the inhumanity of the vastly increased number of deportations under the Obama administration. But, Rubén Rumbaut just alerted me to a recent study published by researchers working under the auspices of the prestigious National Bureau of Economic Research, which shows that deportation is really not good for much of anybody in real economic terms. The paper is available online and the American Immigration Council summarized the results:

As the authors of the study explain:

“policies increasing deportation rates have the largest negative effect on employment opportunities of natives. Legalization, instead has a positive employment effect for natives. This is because repatriations are disruptive of job matches and they reduce job-creation by US firms. Legalization instead stimulates firms’ job creation by increasing the total number of immigrants and stimulating firms to post more vacancies some of which are filled by natives.”

The “most disruptive policy, for the economy and for the wage and labor market opportunities of natives,” the report concludes, “is an increase in deportation rates.”

So, this study concludes that deportations are bad for the U.S. economy, and a lot of anecdotal evidence suggests that they are also deleterious to the Mexican economy, since a disproportionate share of deportees are from Mexico. They are dumped off at the border, have to find their way home, and have no jobs when they get there. This is an economic lose-lose situation, not to mention being a human rights disaster.