According to a White House blog, “immigrants help build and strengthen” the American economy.
The article explains that America is a nation of immigrants. The American journey and success would not be possible without the generations of immigrants who have come to its shores from every corner of the world. Immigrants have made many important contributions and have helped make America the economic engine that it is today.
How have immigrants strengthened the U.S. economy? In the following ten ways and more:
1. Immigrants tend to be entrepreneurs and start business. Immigrants are 30% more likely to start a business in the United States than non-immigrants, and 18% of all small businesses owners in the U.S. are immigrants.
2. Immigrant-owned businesses create jobs for American workers. Small businesses owned by immigrants employed an estimated 4.7 million people and these small businesses generate more than $776 billion annually.
3. Immigrants are more likely to create their own jobs. There are more self-employed immigrants than native-born Americans.
4. Immigrants develop cutting-edge technologies and companies. Immigrants have started 25% of public U.S. companies that were backed by venture capital investors. The list includes Google, eBay, Yahoo!, Sun Microsystems and Intel.
5. Many immigrants are America’s engineers, scientists and innovators. Immigrants represent 33% of engineers, 27% of mathematicians, statisticians and computer scientists and 24% of physical scientists.
6. Immigration boosts earnings for American workers. Increases immigration to the U.S. has increased the earnings of Americans with more than a high school degree.
7. Immigrants boost demand for local consumer goods. The Immigration Policy Center estimates that the purchasing power of Latinos and Asians, many of whom are immigrants, alone will reach $1.5 trillion and $775 billion, respectively by 2015.
8. Immigration reform legislation like the DREAM Act reduces the deficit. The federal deficit would be reduced by $2.2 billion over ten years because of increased tax revenues.
9. Comprehensive immigration reform would create jobs. Comprehensive immigration reform could support and create up to 900,000 new jobs within three years of reform from the increase in consumer spending.
10. Comprehensive immigration reform would increase America’s GDP. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that even under low investment assumptions, comprehensive immigration reform would increase GDP by between .8% and 1.3% from 2012 to 2016.
