Workshop on Immigration and the Firm—Immigration and Urban Issues: Crime, Consumption Varieties, Housing

Immigration is one of the most hotly debated topics among politicians and the public. Many point out that immigrants are an important source of labor for businesses and they provide much of the energy behind innovation and economic competitiveness. Yet, others argue that new immigrants may compete with existing workers, especially those with lower skills, which may result in lower wages. As immigrants settle into their new communities, they have other socioeconomic effects including influencing the types of new business start-ups and entrepreneurship; housing availability; and crime. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago workshop on immigration featured papers on these topics authored by some of world’s leading experts in immigration. The papers formed the basis of a special issue to be published in the Journal of Regional Science and guest edited by Gianmarco Ottaviano of the London School of Economics and Giovanni Peri of University California Davis.