Economics
Who Is in and out Under the RAISE Act
The Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act (RAISE Act) seeks to dramatically reshape American immigration by favoring youth and a narrow set of skills over family values and diversity. It does so by virtually eliminating all family-based legal immigration categories, except for some immediate relatives. In… Read More
Administration Unveils Legislation That Cuts Legal Immigration in Half and Abandons Family Values
The administration revealed legislation this week that seeks to drastically reshape American immigration, moving away from the family based immigration tradition that has both shaped our immigration policies for centuries and promoted family reunification, towards one that reduces people to numbers and rankings through a narrow and rigid point system. Read More
Refugees Contribute More In Taxes Than They Ever Receive in Benefits
Refugee resettlement has long been a cornerstone of United States foreign policy, but in the first weeks of the Trump administration, the president attempted to suspend the decades-long program in favor of a more isolationist approach. One reason the president gave for wanting to temporarily bar the world’s refugees was… Read More
In California Cities, Rising Housing Costs Force Immigrants Out
California’s economy is big, and so is the immigrant contribution to it. The state’s economy is the sixth largest in the world, and immigrants provide one-third (or $715 billion) of the state’s GDP. Undocumented immigrants alone contribute $181 billion to the state’s GDP—an amount that roughly equals the economic output… Read More
How Investing in Immigrants Leads to a Tax Surplus for States
While the federal government is responsible for admitting immigrants to the U.S., immigrants live in states and local communities. And at the local level, immigrants are our neighbors, coworkers, and classmates, in addition to being taxpayers and consumers. They contribute to local and state economies and have a fiscal impact… Read More
Investing in the Children of Immigrants is Critical for American Economy
Immigrants make many contributions to the U.S. economy through their labor power, purchasing power, tax payments, business formation and scientific innovation. Some of these contributions are captured in traditional cost-benefit analyses; others are not. But one of their most valuable economic contributions comes in the form of their native-born children. Read More
Immigration a Boon to U.S. Economy Finds National Panel of Experts
mmigrants and their descendants make valuable contributions to the U.S. economy, according to a new report just released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine entitled, The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration. The exhaustive report is written by a nationally recognized panel of experts. It takes… Read More
What is the Economic Cost of Deporting All Undocumented Immigrants?
This election, there has been much discussion about what to do about unauthorized immigration. While candidate Hillary Clinton proposes a plan to eventually legalize most undocumented immigrants, Donald Trump has stated many times that he favors mass deportation. But what is the economic cost of deporting 11 million… Read More
Why Restricting Immigration Won’t Improve Work Opportunities for Natives
Serious economists know that immigrant and native-born workers cannot simply be swapped for one another like batteries. On average, immigrants and the native-born differ in terms of formal education, job experience, and English-language skills. As a result, immigrants and the native-born tend to “complement” each other rather than directly… Read More
How Immigrants Strengthen the Economies of All 50 States
The economic and political impact of immigration is often discussed at the national level. This makes sense, especially since immigration is a nationwide issue and a federal responsibility. Yet this national focus often obscures the effects of immigration within particular states. Perhaps the most systematic and comprehensive effort so far… Read More
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