Taxes and Spending Power
The contributions immigrants make as both taxpayers and consumers are indispensable to the U.S. economy. Nationally, immigrants earned $1.3 trillion in 2014 and contributed $105 billion in state and local taxes and almost $224 billion in federal taxes. This left them with nearly $927 billion in spending power, which they frequently used to purchase goods and services, stimulate local business activity, and create jobs in the broader U.S. economy.
It’s the Economy: Nation’s Oldest State Really Needs Its Dreamers
Publicly, Sharon McDonnell’s son’s friend goes by the name “S.” That’s because S is an undocumented immigrant. And although she now has Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a policy that currently shields her from deportation, she cannot be sure how long she will remain protected. None of the country’s… Read More
Dreamer: Given the Opportunity, We Work Hard
In 2012, when Leonel Nieto, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, received the legal right to live and work in the United States, he quickly began achieving the milestones of American adulthood: He bought a house, took out a car loan, and earned a master’s degree in information technology to support… Read More
DACA-Eligible Population Contributes Almost $2.5 Billion to Key Social Service Programs
NEW YORK, NY – While Washington works to find a solution for DREAMers, New American Economy is showcasing the contributions and stories that highlight how the DACA-eligible population contributes to the U.S. economy. Already, NAE has highlighted DACA-eligible immigrant incomes and tax contributions. Today, we look at… Read More
The Daily Orange: Drop in refugee resettlement could affect Syracuse economy
The number of new refugees resettling in Syracuse dropped 72 percent between 2016 to 2017, according to recently published data from New York state. This large drop could have wide-ranging economic effects on the area, experts say. Onondaga County has become home to 9,954 refugees in the last 11 years,… Read More
DACA-Eligible Immigrants Paid $3 Billion in Taxes
NEW YORK, NY – While Washington works to find a solution for DREAMers, New American Economy is showcasing the economic contributions and stories that highlight how this population is so critical to our communities. Yesterday, we highlighted the annual income earned by the DACA-eligible population. Today, we spotlight tax contributions: DACA-eligible… Read More
DACA-Eligible Population Earns Nearly $19.9 Billion
NEW YORK, NY – As Congress and the White House spend the next two weeks attempting to reach a fair compromise that addresses the status of nearly 800,000 affected DREAMers, New American Economy will spend the next two weeks highlighting the economic contributions of DACA recipients and the DACA-eligible. The DACA-eligible… Read More
An Unresolved DACA Would ‘Tear Our World Apart’
Carolina Hernandez-Arango is a business-administration major in her final year at Wichita State University. She is also a mother of two, a community organizer — and a Dreamer, brought to the United States from Mexico by her parents when she was 3 years old to receive urgent medical treatment. Now,… Read More
In the U.S. Since Age 13, Young Mother Calls DACA Her ‘Last Chance’
For Hyun Jung Kim, an undocumented immigrant from South Korea, last Thanksgiving in Anchorage, Alaska, was typical. “We had a big turkey and Jell-O salad,” she says. “As a family, we gathered, and had a meal together, and celebrated, and were thankful that we are all together.” Kim spent her… Read More
The Kangol Kid: Recycled Stereotypes Ignore Decades of Haitian Contributions
Shaun Fequiere was 7 years old when he first experienced the sting of discrimination. Classmates at his elementary school in Brooklyn had learned that his parents were from Haiti, where the main language is a French-based creole, and had started calling him “French fry” and “French poodle.” The teasing escalated,… Read More
In America Since Age 2, Texan Fears Deportation to El Salvador if TPS Ends
In 1997, the Iraheta family fled their native El Salvador, a country racked by political unrest following a 12-year civil war, for safety and opportunity in the United States. Claudia Iraheta was 2 years old. Her family settled in Farmers Branch, Texas, and has been able… Read More
Household Income of Immigrants
In 2014, more than 72 percent of foreign-born population in the United States was working-aged, compared to less than half of U.S.-born residents. This reality allowed immigrants to earn well over a trillion dollars of income in 2014—a greater amount than their portion of the U.S. population overall.
Tax Contributions
A notable portion of the income earned by immigrants each year funnels directly back to our government in the form of tax revenues. In some states, immigrants contribute more than one out of every four tax dollars paid by local residents each year—supporting taxpayer-funded services like public schools and police departments.
States Where Immigrants Contributed the Largest Share of Total Tax Revenues, 2014
Spending Power
Spending power is the disposable income left to households after deducting their annual tax contributions. The $9.3 billion in total spending power held by immigrant led households in 2014 allowed them to hold considerable power as consumers. By spending on goods and services, immigrants strengthen the U.S. economy and provide jobs to American workers as well as the businesses dependent upon paying customers.
Foreign-Born Population’s Amount and Share of Spending Power by State, 2014
Medicare and Social Security
Our Social Security and Medicare programs are already facing serious financial challenges—a pattern expected to worsen as large numbers of Baby Boomers retire and leave the workforce altogether. While the United States had roughly 16 workers paying into our entitlement programs for every one retiree in 1950, that number is projected to drop to just two workers for every retiree by 2035.1 Immigrants are already playing an important role supplementing our entitlement programs: One NAE study found that between 1996 and 2011 immigrants contributed $182.4 billion more to Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund—the core trust fund in the program—than was expended on their care.
Sources:
1 “10 Truths About America’s Entitlement Programs, Address by R. Bruce Josten Executive Vice President of Government Affairs U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce, accessed September 21, 2016. Available online.
Bolstering the Housing Market
By purchasing homes in neighborhoods formerly in decline, immigrants in recent decades have had a positive impact on U.S. housing values overall. From 2000 to 2010, each of the 40 million immigrants in the United States added, on average, 11.6 cents to the value of a home in their local county. That seems small, but it adds up. In fact, it resulted in immigrants growing U.S. housing wealth by $3.7 trillion during that period.2 Immigrants are also expected to play a key role buying up homes as baby boomers downsize in the coming years: Almost 30 percent of American homeowners were older than age 65 in 2014.
Sources:
2 Jacob Vigdor, “Immigration and the Revival of American Cities,” New American Economy, 2013 Available online.
Immigrant Subgroups
Regardless of where the immigrants came from, they contribute a tremendous amount of money to the U.S. economy as taxpayers and consumers. In this section, we show the amount earned and contributed in taxes by different ethnic and national origin groups within the foreign-born population.
Taxes & Spending Power of Major Immigrant Subgroups
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