Immigration Impact On Businesses In The US

Reuters Market Video -

QUESTION:

The Supreme Court held up a key part of the Arizona crack down on illegal immigration, what does this mean for businesses not only in Arizona but also around the nation?

CAREY LEAHEY, ECONOMIST IN FINANCIAL SERVICES IN THE GREATER NEW YORK:Well obviously immigrants play an important role in economy particularly in a lot of jobs that are low wage, low skill they provide a lot of man power in that area I would think that any restriction in tougher immigration of any stripe is ironically going to increase cost in any those kinds of activities most particularly come to mind are things like migrant labor and so probably the typical firm their cost structure is going to go up because they are going to have pay more for the workers that they want and they will probably find fewer workers who do that kind of work so you are going to have a bit higher cost and less labor supply and you will probably have higher prices and less abundant produce and vegetables in agricultural area in at all obviously you will have a lot of service work you will have fewer workers because you will have people being nervous staying in the United States.

QUESTION:

What does it do for the business community because there was concern about if theArizona law for the most part had been held up and many parts of it had been put down by the Supreme Court if it was held up we could have this state by state movement where every state had different laws now what this ruling is basically saying is for the most part is that federal law is the law with regard to immigration what does that do for business having that consistency?

CAREY LEAHEY, ECONOMIST IN FINANCIAL SERVICES IN THE GREATER NEW YORK:

Well for businesses that obviously work for more than one state there all going to like that fact that even if they don't like what the standard is they know it's a common standard so the like that so that's obviously the plus but once again, anything that restricts immigration in the United States for most corporations that want low cost labor this is obviously a negative but that fact that if it's a national standard that's a mild plus.