Immigration contributes to U.S. Economy How immigration contributes to U.S. economy

Popular Press

Giovanni Peri

30, August, 2010

The Effect of Immigrants on U.S. Employment and Productivity

The article by Peri narrates the effects of immigration over the total population of the country. He says that the statistical analysis proved that the economy expanded and became more productive after the immigration and the investment also went up. He narrates another opinion that the foreign born U.S. citizens are decreasing the job opportunities for the U.S. born citizens yet there is a consent that output actually increased. He discussed that there is no significant evidence that the jobs grew or dropped for U.S. born workers because of the immigrants. Thus, this means that U.S. workers did not lose jobs because of the immigrants rather new jobs were created for the immigrants that were great for the overall economy.

Peri stated that the population of immigrants is not very small rather the 2008 calculations show that every third worker in California used to be a foreign born. The ratio was one to hundred in West Virginia. There are different influences of immigration on employment, income, and productivity based on the industry. It is found that the young immigrants with less education prefer to do manual jobs thus they have more opportunities in the construction companies. Thus the U.S. born workers are moving away from the manual jobs. Thus the economy has overall benefitted from the immigration but there is no evidence that jobs opportunities decreased for the U.S. born citizens.

Immigrants and the Economy

12 March, 2002

The article published at the forum of American Civil Liberties Union suggests that during the hard economic times, it is a seasonal trend to blame the immigrants for taking away jobs that are actually entitled to the locally born citizens. While the undocumented immigrants are the ones that the public really disfavor, they also have complaints for the legal immigrants. The article suggests that it is a myth that immigrants steal jobs from American workers. The article briefed that many surveys have been conducted in past and especially during the time of Bush to prove the role of immigrants and it was found that they never 'stole' jobs but the economy expanded because of them.

The article presents the fact that about $90 billion are paid in the form of taxes to the state by immigrants (a statistics of 2002). It is said that there are multimillions that the foreign born U.S. citizens pay in form of social work and charity. The survey results in article suggest that according to 1990 American Immigration Institute investigation, the immigrants had a positive impact on economic growth. None said that immigrants had an adverse impact on economic growth. There are many investigation results and the quotations of U.S. officials mentioned in the article proving that immigrants have given a boost to the economy. This is another paper supporting the idea that U.S. economy did benefit from immigrants.

Michael E. Fix and Jeffrey S. Passel

01 May, 1994

Immigration and Immigrants: Setting the Record Straight

The article presents issues and policy related to the area of immigration. It also tells the labor market mechanism and explores how it is affected by the immigration. There were over a million immigrants in 1994 including both legal and illegal immigrants. It is suggested that every year a new bar is set when the share of immigrants in the net annual growth increases. Every year a couple of hundred thousand illegal immigrants enter USA that is the actual burden on the economy since this segment of population only enjoy benefits without paying taxes.

The authors believe that some legal immigrants, too, are decreasing the productivity of the country because they have less education, no training and many of them are not proficient enough in English. It is suggested that the policy should be amended to improve the demands from immigrants with respect to education and English language proficiency because the well-educated immigrants are supporting the economy and even creating new job opportunities. Fix and Passel agreed that there is no overall effect on decreasing jobs because of immigrants. It is also found that the immigrants have higher occurrence of self-employment as compared to the native-born citizens that proves that immigrants paly a positive role on the economy of USA. The article says that the idea that immigrants are a burden on U.S. economy raised due to the economic depression but the careful research and analysis supported that this segment has been helpful in job creation and increasing tax net. Thus the immigrants are supporting public as well as private sectors of the economy.

Websites

Aguilar
18 May, 2013

The Important Role of Immigrants in Our Economy

An article published this year on U.S. Security and Exchange Commissions' official website by Aguilar says that the immigrants have a critical role in the economic growth of the country. The article suggests that the small business opportunities have been growing with the rise in immigrant population in USA. He quoted the Obama's quote that the immigrants have made America stringer over two centuries. They are starting new businesses and make up 16.7% of new business owners in the country. Article mentioned that 75% of patents in USA are given to foreign-born inventors. Especially in technology industry, he says the immigrants are having higher education and participating in research.

Commissioner believes that the immigrants are improving the U.S. competitiveness. These immigrants are having twice as much PhDs that the native born Americans. These statistical figures reflect that the immigrants, like Hispanics, are not only active employees and employers but also make up major portion of the consumers. The immigrants, he says, have relatively less access to resources but they are highly motivated to increase their income that helps the national economy and supports job market. The Commissioner believes that the immigrants are not burden on economy but they support themselves through regular tax payments. He says that crowd funding is increasing among immigrants that help increasing investments. The article concludes that there is yet enough potential for immigrants to take part in economic growth of country.

How immigration is shaping the United States

The article published on Deloitte University Press points out that one of the major emphasis of the Congress is to bring immigration reforms. The country is blessed with natural resources and shows tolerance for diversity thus the immigrants have a lot of opportunity. The role of immigration in USA has history since the seventeenth century when the permanent settlements of the immigrants started. The influence of the immigrants has been increasing with every new generation. From less than 5% four decades ago to over 13% immigrant population today, the immigrants are increasing in number as well as impact on population. The foreign born U.S. citizens are found more dedicated to learn and get trained thus they are more productive in the technology industry. The ration of education was initially higher in U.S. born than the foreign born citizens of USA but the dynamics are changing now.

The article mentions that the foreign born workers were initially active only in the manual jobs but know they are becoming more qualified given their higher education and that will eventually offer exponentially enhanced competitiveness to the country. The skilled jobs are increasing the country's competitiveness much more than the productivity through manual jobs. Article proves that the immigrants are making the country smarter, stronger, younger and more productive.

Jordan, Mariam

01 September, 2010

Illegal Immigration to U.S. Slows Sharply

While the role of immigrants is increasing in the economy of USA, the illegal immigrants are considered parasites. The good news, Mariam says, is that the illegal immigration has decreased since 2007. The hundreds of thousands of immigrants are not the tax payers and they also consume the benefits. The illegal immigrants are a big issue since there were 28% illegal immigrants in 2009 out of the total immigrant population. Most of the illegal immigrants used to be the Mexicans, around 60%. The administrators say that the illegal immigrants have decreased in number both due to strict laws and the bad economic conditions.

The image of immigrants has thus improved after the financial crisis because once the country faced economic challenges and the jobs started to shed, it was realized that the immigrants were the one that were involved in self-employment and thus they supported the economy. The role of legal immigrants became clear and distinct from the role of illegal immigrants. Thus, while the illegal immigrants are discouraged both through law and enforcement, the legal immigrants are appreciated for their role in the economy of USA especially during the economic depression.

Journal

George J. Borjas

Native Internal Migration and the Labor Market Impact of Immigration

The article published in Journal of Human Resource says that the immigrants are a major and inevitable portion of population and economy of America. The analysis of influence of immigrants-to-USA shows that they are effective in joint determination of the wage structure also affects the attitude of nationals towards the market. Based on 40-year data up till 2000, article says that the rate…