Reports Show Immigrants Boost the Economy

Originally posted at the Reform Immigration For America

Driving home our point: Immigrants boost the economy

We’ve been saying for months that immigration is an overall net-positive for our recovering economy. With unemployment at a scary high and our economy still limping slowly towards recovery, many have repeated history by scapegoating immigrants as “taking our jobs” and have pointed fingers at the undocumented immigrant population as somehow responsible for the current economic climate.

These same finger-pointers are those yelling ‘amnesty’ loudly at the top of their lungs and arguing against comprehensive immigration reform.

Earlier this year, the Center for American Progress released a report whose findings pointed to immigration reform as serving to boost our economy across the board:

…we estimate that comprehensive immigration reform would yield at least $1.5 trillion in added U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years. This is a compelling economic reason to move away from the current “vicious cycle” where enforcement-only policies perpetuate unauthorized migration and exert downward pressure on already low wages, and toward a “virtuous cycle” of worker empowerment in which legal status and labor rights exert upward pressure on wages.

This week, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco released another report on the role of immigration in our economy and the results are unsurprising (at least to us). In short, the report found that immigrants do NOT somehow ‘take jobs from American workers’ and that immigration is a net gain for our economy.

To be frank, duh.

We’ve been saying this for a while now, but we’re glad to see others catching on. It’s the economy, stupid and immigration has been a part of our economic staying power for years.

For more on this, read the report itself and be sure to check out others who have written about it here, here and here.

Posted in: economy,federal reserve bank of san francisco,Immigration