Has the quality of immigrants declined? Evidence from the labor market attachment of immigrants and natives

This is an investigation of the labor market activities of U.S. immigrants who arrived from the 1960s through the 1980s. Relative to natives, upon arrival male immigrants who arrived during the 1980s tire more likely to be persistently jobless than are male immigrants who arrived during the 1960s. The increased disengagement of immigrant arrivals from the U.S. labor market appears solely in the form of labor market withdrawal and has not manifested itself in increased institutionalization. Though the ''new immigration'' apparently does not increase fiscal burdens on the penal system, it nonetheless is expanding the dependent population. The greater labor market idleness of today's immigrants relative to pre-1970 arrivals is consistent with a growing body of economic evidence suggesting a deterioration of U.S. immigrants' labor market capital and success during the post war period.