A Note on Immigration Regulations in the United States

In the early 1990s, the immigration regulations in the US were altered substantially. The Immigration Act of 1990¹ increased the number of legal immigrants allowed into the US every year from 500,000 to 700,000 resulting in an increase in the number of visas issued by 40%.² Apart from individuals seeking to immigrate, the liberalized visa regime was also utilized by firms across the world to enter the US market as part of their business expansion plans. For example, many Information Technology (IT) firms from India had made use of the liberalized US immigration regulations to move software workers into the US, which effectively accelerated their growth in the US market.

According to a report titled, “The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration,” released by National Research Council³ (NRC) on May 17, 1997, legal and illegal immigration to the US was contributing about US$ 1 billion to US$ 10 billion to the US GDP per year.⁴

James P. Smith, Chairman NRC said, “Immigrants may be adding as much as $10 billion to the economy each year,” “It's true that some Americans are now paying more taxes because of immigration, and native-born Americans without high school educations have seen their wages fall slightly because of the competition sparked by lower-skilled, newly arrived immigrants...