What would Illinois look like without immigrants?
113,939 fewer founders. 281,090 employees out of a job. $2.6 billion in business income lost.
And that’s just from foreign-born entrepreneurs.
A new report from New American Economy, a bipartisan group of more than 500 mayors and business leaders who support immigration reform with a focus on the economy, set out to quantify the impact of immigrants across the US.
New American Economy found Illinois is home to nearly 1.8 million immigrants, the sixth largest foreign-born population in the country. And while immigrants make up 13.7 percent of the population, they make up 22.1 percent of business owners in the state as of 2014.
Immigrants in Illinois also have a spending power that totals $40.1 billion and pay $14.5 billion in taxes, according to the report.
This impact is particularly felt in Chicago: The majority of Illinois’ immigrants (1.6 million) live in the Chicago metro area, make up 17.5 percent of the area’s population, pay $14.5 billion in taxes, and include 110,013 entrepreneurs.
Read the full story from ChicagoInno: “What Would Illinois Look Like Without Immigrants? 113K Fewer Entrpreneurs: A new report breaks down immigrants’ impact on the economy of Illinois“
