Immigrants, regardless of their status, place of origin, skill level, language proficiency, or time in country, contribute significantly to the country ever since its foundation and into the present day. Immigration is an important part of the American identity. 14 percent of the United States population is foreign-born. That’s approximately 45 million immigrants, more than any other nation.
Without immigrants and their children, the United States would soon begin to experience demographic decline. The number of US-born workers with US-born parents is declining. Immigrants extend the sustainability of federal retirement programs by slowing the rise in the ratio of retirees to workers. Without a growing workforce, the US economy would begin to lose its dynamism and leadership role in the global economy.
Immigrants are net contributors to job creation and wage growth. Unskilled labor fills a gap in farms and factories that America’s aging population doesn’t satisfy. Immigrant business owners have created millions of American jobs through major corporations and countless small businesses. In the most recent analysis, nearly 45 percent of firms on the Fortune 500 list were founded by immigrants or their children. Foreign-born entrepreneurs drive business creation through the thousands of small mom-and-pop stores that line our communities. Immigrants start businesses at a higher rate than the U.S.-born Americans.
In areas requiring lower-skilled workers, automation and outsourcing have inflicted more damage in wages than immigrants themselves, as it simply requires less manpower to perform certain tasks. These lower wages, however, deter American born workers from taking jobs in these low-skilled fields, hence requiring migrant workers to fill the vacant positions. Overall, however, incorporating migrants into the workforce, regardless of their skill level, increases consumption, spending, and investing, which leads to an increase in GDP and the economic growth.
Furthermore, with the contributions immigrants make to Social Security, they secure the health of the fund for ageing Americans, ensuring that the contributions they made from their own wages make their way back to them in retirement. Even undocumented immigrants pump about $13 billion into Social Security each year, contributions they likely won’t be able to use.
Immigrants are often exceptional inventors and creators that drive innovation. They’ve experienced challenges and adversity that forced them to come up with new solutions and often take a more difficult path than others. It may also make them more empathetic, finding a better solution from the customer’s perspective.
Immigrants are disproportionately likely to hold STEM degrees as compared to the native-born workforce. What’s more, immigrant entrepreneurs are responsible for more patents per capita than the native-born population.
American culture is a blend of the world’s customs, rituals, and traditions introduced through each wave of migration. Immigrants have played an out-sized role in the development of the American performing arts. Our food scene has become a cornucopia of world flavors because it integrates just about everything introduced by these newcomers.
There are an estimated 2.8 million immigrant healthcare professionals, playing a vital role on the front lines of disease-born crises. In fact, approximately 28 percent of physicians and surgeons are immigrants. Health aids (25 percent) and nurses (15 percent) are other medical occupations with a large percentage of foreign-born individuals.
Since the Revolutionary War, immigrants have been a vital part of the United States military and the nation’s defense. Military service has been a way for many foreign-born individuals to give back and earn a path to citizenship. Since 2002, over 139,000 members of the military have been naturalized. Unfortunately, naturalizations have fallen in recent years. In part, this is due to the suspension of recruitment programs like MANVI, which allowed certain immigrants to enlist if they had skills considered vital to the national interest.
Suggestions:
1. Re-enact the DREAM Act.
2. Provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants currently residing in the country who do not have felony offenses.
3. Institute guest worker programs by industry that can provide a path to citizenship for participants via a lottery and yearly quota system.
4. Require businesses to prioritize the hire of American citizens and permanent residents and comply with stringent regulation of treatment for the immigrant workers they do hire.
Benefits of Immigration Outweigh the Costs
America’s slowest population growth since Great Depression