Demographics
Immigrants are a vital, dynamic part of the U.S. population—especially when it comes to the workforce. 77.1% of immigrants are of working age (16–64), compared to just 62.0% of U.S.-born residents, making them key contributors to the economy as both taxpayers and consumers.
- 22.9 million immigrants are active in the U.S. workforce
- 74% of foreign-born residents are proficient in English
- 89.4% of all undocumented immigrants are of working age
- 5.2 million U.S. citizen children living with at least one undocumented family member
- Only 4.9% of immigrants are under 15, compared to 20.3% of U.S.-born residents
- 18% of immigrants are 65+, nearly identical to the 17.7% of U.S.-born seniors
The Sooner Immigrants Become Citizens, the Better it is for the Economy
As lawmakers negotiate the contours of an immigration reform bill, they should keep in mind that the granting of legal status to undocumented immigrants would be a boon for the U.S. economy—and allowing undocumented immigrants to eventually become U.S. citizens would be an even bigger boon. Such is the finding of a report from the Center for American Progress (CAP), entitled The Economic Effects of Granting Legal Status and Citizenship to Undocumented Immigrants. The report was authored by Robert Lynch, a Visiting Senior Fellow at CAP and the Everett E. Nuttle professor and chair of the Department of Economics at Washington College, and Patrick Oakford, a Research Assistant at CAP. The authors explain succinctly why legalized immigrants and newly minted U.S. citizens are so economically valuable: Read More
Cato Report Finds Poor Immigrants Use Fewer Public Benefits than Natives
Among the most contentious debates surrounding national immigration reform concerns immigrant use of welfare programs. Opponents of immigration routinely assert low-skilled immigrants consume more public resources than natives, thereby imposing an unfair fiscal burden on U.S. taxpayers. Read More
Survey: Asian Americans Concerned with Legalization, Family Backlogs
In the current debate, immigration is often depicted as a Latino issue. This is partially because just over half of America’s foreign-born population is from Latin America and the Caribbean, and the current political climate around immigration is largely seen as being driven by Latino turnout for Democrats in the 2012 election. But this depiction glosses over the millions of immigrants – documented and undocumented – who hail from other parts of the globe. Read More
Nativists Fail to Grasp Economics of Immigration Reform
This week, the New York Times gave voice to the nativist argument that legalizing unauthorized immigrants would drain the federal budget because newly legalized immigrants will start using public benefits. However, this flawed fiscal accounting overlooks the myriad ways in which immigrants, just like the native-born, contribute to the U.S. economy over the course of their adult lives. As workers, they add value to the economy through their labor. As taxpayers, they fund government services and programs at the federal, state, and local levels. As consumers, immigrants purchase goods and services from U.S. companies, big and small, sustaining U.S. jobs in the process. And, as entrepreneurs, many immigrants create jobs through the businesses they establish. In other words, the economic contributions of any person, immigrant or native-born, come in many forms and span a lifetime. Read More
Politicians Invent Doomsday Predictions About Immigration Reform
Nativists are rarely encumbered by facts. By its very nature, nativist rhetoric is based on stereotype and mythology, not empirical evidence. Regrettably, some of our elected leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate have embraced the mirage of nativism as they embark on a crusade to derail any meaningful reform of the U.S. immigration system. More precisely, anti-reform politicians have been issuing doomsday predictions about what will happen to the nation if a legalization program is created for unauthorized immigrants already living in the United States. It comes as little surprise that these predictions have no basis in reality. Read More
Why Should We Support a Legalization Program for Unauthorized Immigrants?
As the immigration debate heats up in Congress, the central question for much of the American public will be whether or not to create a pathway to legal status for the 11 million unauthorized immigrants now living in the United States. In formulating an answer to that question, however, it is necessary to ask two others. First, exactly who are the unauthorized immigrants who would be attaining legal status? Secondly, what would the impact be on the U.S. economy were so many unauthorized immigrants to be legalized? The answer to the first question is relatively simple: unauthorized immigrants are just like everybody else; they are adults and children, mothers and fathers, homeowners and churchgoers. The short answer to the second question is that legalization would be a stimulus to the U.S. economy. Workers with legal status earn higher wages, and these extra earnings generate more tax revenue for federal, state, and local governments, as well as more consumer spending, which sustains more jobs in U.S. businesses. Read More
Immigrants Add Billions to the Arkansas Economy
A perennial question in the immigration debate is whether or not immigrants contribute more to the economy than they cost. That is, do they add more economically as workers, taxpayers, consumers, and entrepreneurs than they “consume” in public education, public healthcare, and public benefits? In some ways, this question is misleading. Education and healthcare are social investments that pay future dividends; they are not merely fiscal expenses. Nevertheless, it is a useful exercise to take the question at face value and do the math. The result, contrary to the convoluted arithmetic of anti-immigrant activists, is overwhelmingly positive. Immigrants add far more to the economy than they take away. And given the aging of the native-born population, the contributions of immigrants (and their children) will only increase over time. Read More
Reasons for Cautious Optimism on Immigration Reform
There is considerable debate at the moment over the prospects for immigration reform this year. On the one hand, an electorally chastened Republican Party seems to be reevaluating its long-standing support for deportation-only immigration policies. On the other hand, it looks as though the White House and Congress are embarking upon lengthy debates over gun control and tax-and-spending policies; debates which might leave little room for a rational discussion of U.S. immigration laws. Nevertheless, reports from the White House indicate that President Obama is ready to forge ahead on immigration reform. It remains to be seen, however, what form that will take. Will the President opt for a truly comprehensive solution, or will he adopt a more piecemeal type of reform that targets only some subsets of the immigrant population? Let us hope that the comprehensive approach prevails. The fates of millions of people have been hanging in the balance for far too long. Read More
America’s Aging Crisis Will Only Grow Worse With Declining Immigration
As a recent story in The Economist notes, the conventional wisdom has long been that “because Americans have so many babies and welcome so many immigrants, they had more room to deal with the coming burden of pensions and health care for the elderly.” But that is no longer the case. The story goes on to point out that “the savage recession of 2007-09 and its aftermath…have weakened those demographic advantages. America’s fertility rate has been falling since 2007, as has net immigration.” In other words, there are going to be fewer working-age, tax-paying adults to support the rapidly growing number of elderly Americans. Read More
America: Start-Up Nation of Immigrants
AOL co-founder Steve Case brought an important message to the National Strategy Session on Immigration in Washington, D.C. this week: America is a start-up nation. Over the last 200 years, America has built the most dynamic economy in the world through the hard work and innovation of its entrepreneurs. Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
