Kevin Vaught’s Post

"Political debates about the impact of immigration on the economy have often been at odds with the facts. But the consensus is surprisingly uncontroversial among economists: Immigration expands and strengthens the economy. The Economic Policy Institute and the Immigration Research Initiative have come together to synthesize some of the most essential facts on immigration, immigrant workers, and the economy in a one-page fact sheet. We will co-release additional fact sheets summarizing state-by-state economic impacts in the coming days."

Introduction and executive summary Immigration has been a source of strength for the U.S. economy and has great potential to boost it even more, but the current U.S. immigration policy regime squanders too many of its potential benefits by depriving immigrants of their full rights as workers and granting employers too much power to manipulate the system. It is crystal clear that immigration expands U.S. gross domestic product and is good for growth. And immigration overall has led to better, not worse, wages and work opportunities for U.S.-born workers. Yet, it is also clear that when workers are denied full and equal labor and employment rights, as some immigrants are when their immigration status is used against them—it makes immigrant workers’ lives more precarious and can harm the people with whom they work side-by-side in the same industries. Even in the face of our unjust policy regime, immigration today provides numerous benefits to the U.S. economy. The nation could benefit even more, and the benefit could be shared more widely with a smarter set of immigration policies that benefit all workers. The benefits are too often overlooked, and the challenges it poses for policymakers and U.S.-born workers are often grossly exaggerated. In this paper, we assess the evidence on immigration’s effect on a number of economic outcomes given the policy status quo. We then go on to highlight how immigration status impacts wages and working conditions, and finally, offer recommendations on how to craft a better immigration policy regime—one that grants immigrants their full rights as workers in U.S. labor markets, generating broad benefits for U.S. and foreign-born workers alike. Our key findings are: