STUDY: IMMIGRATION CREATES JOBS FOR U.S. WORKERS

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Partnership for a New American Economy today released a report analyzing the impact of immigration on the American economy. The nationwide study, based on a multi-year statistical analysis, offers new evidence that immigrants create jobs for American workers, and that immigrants with specific skill types do not compete with native workers, but complement them and improve their employment outlook. 

The report – “Immigrants and American Jobs,” by economist and professor Madeleine Zavodny – analyzes the relationship between the foreign-born workforce and the employment rate for native U.S. workers. The report focuses on two groups often seen by policymakers and employers as critical to the economy: foreign-born adults with advanced degrees and foreign workers here on temporary-employment visas. In both cases, the analysis shows that more foreign-born workers means more jobs for U.S. natives – as many as 262 more native-born workers employed for every 100 foreign-born workers with advanced U.S. degrees who work in science, technology, engineering, or math (“STEM”) fields.

The report also looks at the fiscal impact of the foreign-born and finds that, on average, all immigrants pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits, particularly for highly educated immigrants. Together, the data shows that policy reforms designed to accommodate more of these categories of immigrants would boost employment, while making a positive contribution to government budgets.

KJ