http://bravenewfilms.org/topics/fiscal-cost 2008-05-12T17:47:11Z http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/35287-undocumented-workers-resource-or-drain 2008-05-12T17:47:11Z DREAMActivist <div class="post_content"> <p><p>Several new studies have been conducted in the past few months on the economic impact of undocumented workers, which is hotly debated across the aisles. </p><p>I have never been one for macro-studies that pretend to take a statistic common to a particular community and multiply it to make a generalized claim. See the immigration &quot;fuzzy math&quot; telecasted on <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/10/opinion/main2667167.shtml">CBS</a> yesterday (done by the ultra-conservative <a href="http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/sr12.cfm">Heritage Foundation</a>), where the &quot;scholars&quot; calculate the fiscal cost of &quot;illegal immigrants&quot; by estimating that the average lifetime cost of an unskilled worker--two-thirds of whom are estimated to be illegal immigrants--is $1.1 million to the American taxpayer. In this case, the end cost is reached after making assumptions ranging from &quot;illegal immigrants&quot; as a homogenous group of unskilled workers to how much these unskilled workers pay in taxes compared to their use of social services homogenously across America. That is certainly fuzzy logic at its best.&nbsp; </p><p>Lets pay more attention to community and local economy focused studies that are academic, non-partisan and actually locate and address undocumented immigrants instead of trying to erroneously determine their percentage within another group.&nbsp;</p></p> </div> <a href="/blog/35287-undocumented-workers-resource-or-drain">Continue reading</a>