The Continuing Debate Over the Economic Impacts of Immigration

There is much academic literature on the economic impacts of immigration.  In “Dollars without Sense: Underestimating the Value of Less-Educated Workers,” Walter A. Ewing and Benjamin Johnson take on a recent report from the Heritage Foundation and claim that it is one in a long line of deeply flawed economic analyses which claim to estimate the contributions and “costs” of workers based solely on the amount of taxes they pay and the value of the public services they utilize. According to this line of thinking, if the taxes paid by workers do not cover the cost of the public services and benefits they receive, then these workers are draining the public treasury and, ostensibly, the economy as a whole. However, this kind of simplistic fiscal arithmetic does not accurately gauge the impact that workers of any skill level, foreign-born or native-born, have on the economy. It also is a dehumanizing portrayal of all workers who labor for low wages in physically demanding jobs that are essential to the economic health of the nation.  To see the report, click here and look for the pdf link.

KJ