Immigration

[twirlgrrl]

Fact: Many studies have shown that immigrants (including undocumented immigrants) contribute more to the economy than the cost of the services they use.

http://immigration.server263.com/images/File/factcheck/StateandLocalStudySurvey04-17-08.pdf

Fact: The IRS estimates that $520 billion has been paid into social security and Medicare programs by undocumented immigrants who are ineligible to receive those benefits. These programs would be in trouble today without this subsidization.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/business/05immigration.html?ex=1270353600&en=78c87ac4641dc383&ei=5090

Fact: A recent study found that health care for undocumented immigrants between 18 and 64 costs each US household an average of $11 annually. Consider that most undocumented immigrants pay state and federal taxes, and all undocumented immigrants pay applicable sales taxes and contribute to property taxes either through home ownership or by paying rent.

http://rand.org/news/press.06/11.14.html

The debate on undocumented immigration has many sides; I can find very few studies that consider the entire economic picture in their analysis. However, the studies I did find that attempted to be comprehensive invariably showed either a negligible cost or a relatively insignificant economic gain. When considering all aspects of immigration, including impact on wages, lower costs of goods and services, taxes paid, and educational and social services consumed, there is no credible evidence that undocumented immigration represents a major drain on the economy as a whole. So if these assertions are untrue from an economic point of view, what is their source?

Comments

[two-roads.livejournal.com]

Great post! I'll have to show this one to Andy.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Really, the more I look into this the more complex it gets, and these are just a few of the things I found. Each study seems to look at one particular aspect and it's so hard to get the big picture. For example, the cost to our health care system is smaller than one would suppose because most undocumented immigrants are relatively young and healthy (and afraid to seek services.) But the cost to our educational system is huge because of the children that are born to immigrants here... and some groups argue that the educational cost is balanced out over time by the contributions of more educated workers to the general workforce down the road. And then there's the impact on wages. From what I could gather, there is a negative impact on the wages of people who do not have a high school diploma, but a boost to everyone else's wages. Lesson: Finish high school? It's all so confusing. But much less cut and dried than one would think, and that leads me to the unsurprising conclusion that most of the debate is driven by xenophobia, and fear in general.

[f1ymetothemoon.livejournal.com]

In response to your next post, in which comments are off, I'm cheating by responding here so I can give you a {{hug}}.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Cheater!

Thanks.