Since the 1970s, the striking increase in immigration to the United
States has been accompanied by a marked change in the composition of the
immigrant community, with a much higher percentage of foreign-born
workers coming from Latin America and Asia and a dramatically lower
percentage from Europe.
This timely study is unique in presenting new data sets on the labor
force, wage rates, and demographic conditions of both the U.S. and
source-area economies through the 1980s. The contributors analyze the
economic effects of immigration on the United States and selected source
areas, with a focus on Puerto Rico and El Salvador. They examine the
education and job performance of foreign-born workers; assimilation,
fertility, and wage rates; and the impact of remittances by immigrants
to family members on the overall gross domestic product of source areas.
A revealing and original examination of a topic of growing importance,
this book will stand as a guide for further research on immigration and
on the economies of developing countries.