Immigration and black-white unemployment rates in the United States.

Abstract

The possible impact of immigration on the widening gap in unemployment rates for black and white teenagers in the United States is examined. The author concludes that although immigration has been good for the long-run economic growth of the United States as a whole, "to the extent that immigrants are better substitutes for black youth than they are for white youth, short term displacement effects are more pronounced among the blacks. This proposition is supported by data for the period 1951-1980."