According to data from the US Census Bureau, in 2009, 12.5 percent, or 38.5 million of the population, were people born in foreign, with foreign-born defined as anyone who was not a native of the United States. citizen at birth. More than half of these immigrants entered the United States in the past 20 years. (Walters et al., October 2010) More recently, 7 million immigrants, or 17 percent, arrived in 2005 or later. (Walters et al. November 2011) Foreign-born people made up 14.7 percent of the labor force in 2005, up from 5.3 percent in 1970. (Ottaviano et al. August 2006) This increase in immigration has reignited the debate on the effect of immigration. on native-born workers. American policymakers, economists, and the media have attempted to quantify and report the effect of increasing immigration on American citizens. The resulting reports are contradictory; While some point to declining wages and increasing unemployment for our native-born population, others conclude that the effect of immigration on wages and employment is minimal or even beneficial. After exploring several reports, I conclude that immigration is good for the economy, the job market, and native-born workers. How big is the immigrant population? Where did they come from? What is their training? Recent Census Bureau data shows that "nearly 14 million new immigrants (legal and illegal) settled in the country between 2000 and 2010, making it the highest immigration decade in American history ". (Camarota October 2011) Figure 1 depicts the immigrant population in the United States over the past 110 years, with 2010 being the largest with 40 million total immigrants. Figure 1 also illustrates the unit percentage...... middle of paper ...... published November 20, 2011. http://www.nber.org/papers/w12497. (Ottaviano et al. August 2006)Shierholz, Heidi. Ecoomic Policy Institute, “Methodological advances on immigration and wages confirm modest gains for native workers.” Last modified February 4, 2010. Accessed December 3, 2011. http://www.epi.org/publications/bp255/. (Shierholz February 4, 2010) Walters, Nathan P. and Rachel Cortes. USCensus Bureau, “Year of entry of the foreign-born population: 2009.” Last modified October 2010. Accessed November 2, 2011. www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/acsbr09-17.pdf. (Walters et al. October 2010) Walters, Nathan P. and Edward N. Trevelyan. United States Census Bureau, “The Foreign-Born New Arrival Population in the United States: 2010.” Last edited November 2011. Accessed December 3, 2011. www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/acsbr10-16.pdf. (Walters et al. November 2011)