Brookings: Report — A dozen facts about immigration

Brookings provides us with the latest basic facts about immigration to the United States:

1. The foreign-born share of the U.S. population has returned to its late-19th-century level.
2. The rising foreign-born share is driven by both immigration flows and low fertility of native-born individuals.
3. About three-quarters of the foreign-born population are naturalized citizens or authorized residents.
4. 80 percent of immigrants today come from Asia or Latin America, while in 1910 more than 80 percent of immigrants came from Europe.
5. Immigrants are 4 times more likely than children of native-born parents to have less than a high school degree, but are almost twice as likely to have a doctorate.
6. Immigrants are much more likely than others to work in construction or service occupations, but children of immigrants work in roughly the same occupations as the children of natives.
7. Prime-age foreign-born men work at a higher rate than native-born men, but foreign-born women work at a lower rate than native-born women.
8. Output in the economy is higher and grows faster with more immigrants.
9. Most estimates show a small impact of immigration on low-skilled native-born wages.
10. High-skilled immigration increases innovation.
11. Immigrants contribute positively to government finances over the long run, and high-skilled immigrants make especially large contributions.
12. Immigration in the United States does not increase crime rates.

KJ