A NATIONAmerica built by immigrants is strengthened by the contributions of immigrants. Read stories of American immigrants, debunk myths about immigration, and read the Bush Institute`s policy recommendations. As the Biden administration and Congress finalize their restoration bills and ponder how best to move the nation`s policies toward a fairer, more humane and more functional immigration system, the Center for American Progress and the Global Migration Center at the University of California, Davis have modeled the economic impact of several proposals currently before Congress. Using an aggregate simulation of macroeconomic growth, the model illustrates the benefits to the country as a whole of putting undocumented immigrants on the path to citizenship. Such legislation would increase productivity and wages—not only for those eligible for legalization, but for all American workers—would create hundreds of thousands of jobs and increase tax revenues.4 Permanent legal status would likely impact federal government costs and revenues. The Department of Homeland Security`s recently concluded “public impeachment” rule directs immigration officials to deny applications from people who want to stay legally in the U.S. or who want to enter the U.S. if they have received a number of public benefits or are more likely to receive them in the future than not. The rule has two main implications.

It will be more difficult for those who currently have modest means to enter legally or obtain permission to remain in the country as permanent residents. And it will leave immigrant families scared of receiving benefits like SNAP, Medicaid and housing assistance that can help them make ends meet and access health care if their low wages aren`t enough. Many will forgo aid altogether, leading to more insecurity and economic hardship, with long-term negative consequences, especially for children. This report begins with the parameters used by the model to estimate the economic impact of legalization and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. From there, the short-term (five-year implementation) and long-term (five to 10 years post-implementation) nature of the effects is discussed before presenting the economic effects of the simulation for four scenarios that protect different subgroups of undocumented immigrants. While some argue that increased use of social programs would impose significant tax costs on the government, the productivity of newly legalized would likely increase, benefiting everyone in the United States through an expansion of economic output. In addition, the resulting wage increases and tax compliance would increase their contributions to public finances, and their children would also benefit. Allowing currently unauthorized workers to participate fully in the labour market would benefit not only immigrants and their families, but society as a whole.

In this scenario, all undocumented immigrants in important jobs, such as those from the United States. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defines the right to legalize immediately and access a pathway to citizenship after five years.18 The authors estimate that 5 million undocumented people will qualify for protection using CPS data from 2019 to 2020. In addition to employment opportunities, data from previous legalizations in the U.S. and other countries suggest that legalization also encourages immigrants to improve their language skills, pushes them to pursue additional education and training, and improves their health outcomes, making them more productive members of society. For example, data collected in Germany show that faster access to citizenship has led migrant women to improve their language skills and increase their job retention. In a study of U.S. teens born into the same immigrant families — but whose legal status varies depending on the countries in which they were born — unauthorized immigrant teens were about 2.6 percentage points less likely to be enrolled in school. In addition, evidence from the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) and DACA shows that these reforms increased the education of previously unauthorized immigrants. Finally, a recent economic study also suggests that DACA recipients have experienced improved physical and mental health, which contributes to increased productivity. In this scenario, all undocumented immigrants would be entitled to immediate legalization and a five-year path to naturalization. The model includes all undocumented workers as well as dreamers, regardless of their employment status. The authors estimate that 7.7 million of the 10.2 million undocumented people eligible for protection using CPS data from 2019 to 2020 had a job or dreamed in the year before the COVID-19 crisis.16 FACT: Immigrants are highly enterprising, starting new businesses twice as often as native-born Americans and creating large numbers of jobs.

All of this increases employment opportunities for Native American workers, raises wages, and empowers the middle class. When the U.S. economy begins to open up again, job creation will be absolutely critical to stimulating recovery in communities across the country. Research shows that immigrants generally complement American workers rather than compete with them because they have different skills and educational backgrounds. The U.S. economy is dynamic, not zero-sum: if one person gets a job, it doesn`t mean another person loses a job. In fact, immigrants contribute to the growth of the economy by meeting labour needs, buying goods and paying taxes. When more people work, productivity increases. And as more Americans retire in the coming years, immigrants will help meet labor demand and maintain the social safety net. Immigrants also make an important contribution to the U.S. economy. More directly, immigration increases potential economic output by increasing the number of workers.

Immigrants also help increase productivity. Economists Gaetano Basso and Giovanni Peri note that immigrants are more mobile than native-born people in response to local economic conditions, perhaps because they have fewer long-standing family and community ties, which helps labor markets function more efficiently. Economists Jennifer Hunt and Marjolaine Gauthier-Loiselle have also shown that immigrants foster innovation, a key factor in improving living standards. In particular, they note that a 1 percentage point increase in the proportion of immigrant university graduates increases patents per capita by 9% to 18%. This model assumes that the response to investment is on an equilibrium trajectory, as in a model of economic growth with human and physical capital and technological change, as in Jones and Vollrath`s 2013 book, where the country grows at a steady pace and firms respond to higher returns on capital by investing and maintaining the ratio of physical capital to effective labour proportional to productivity.41 The mechanisms result in higher GDP and higher investment and business returns for the U.S.-born and other documented short-term individuals. The wage income of American workers will not change in the short term, and total wage income will only increase because of the higher wages of legalized immigrants. Of course, immigrants contribute to our communities in ways that go far beyond their impact on the economy. This analysis focuses on these economic impacts and therefore necessarily provides only a narrow window on how immigration has been a positive force for our country. Immigrants have made countless contributions to the American economy and society.

However, current legislation limits millions of them to living in the shadows, without the right to participate fully in the economy or to have access to basic social protection. Such treatment harms the unauthorized immigrants themselves and their families — many of whom are U.S. citizens and non-legal citizens — as well as the economy as a whole. As the above results show, creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants is not only the right thing to do, but would also be an important incentive for the U.S. economy. Undocumented immigrants are essential to the country`s social infrastructure – a fact that has been better understood in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Across the country, they are starting families and businesses, keeping hospitals open and functional, and caring for Americans` loved ones.