Research Highlights Article August 13, 2026 Evidence from a US government lottery shows that restricting foreign low-skill workers shrinks businesses without creating jobs for Americans. Source: Ragesoss, CC BY-SA 3.0 Researchers broadly agree that high-skill immigrants complement native labor. But for low-skill work, the evidence has been less clear, with estimates swinging widely depending on the assumptions made. In a  paper in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics , authors Michael A. Clemens and Ethan G. Lewis studied the economic effects of low-skill immigration by exploiting a randomized lottery for visas run by the federal government. In the United States, the H-2B visa authorizes temporary foreign workers in seasonal jobs, such as landscaping, seafood processing, forestry, and hospitality. Ninety-eight percent of these jobs require no high school education.  The Immigration Act of 1990 capped the number of H-2B visas at 66,000 per year.…