It may not convince Americans opposed to immigration, but a new report by the prestigious National Academies of Sciences finds immigrants don’t lower wages or take jobs from the native-born.
“The panel’s comprehensive examination revealed many important benefits of immigration — including on economic growth, innovation and entrepreneurship — with little to no negative effects on the overall wages or employment of native-born workers in the long term,” said Francine D. Blau, a professor of economics at Cornell University and chair of the panel that conducted the study.
The report examined economic and demographic trends in U.S. immigration over the past 20 years, their impact on the labor market and wages of native-born workers, and the fiscal impact at the national, state and local levels.
While immigrants have an overall positive impact on American economic growth, the report found they do impose costs on state and local governments, primarily for education.
“But these children of immigrants, on average, go on to be the most positive fiscal contributors in the population,” Blau noted.
Among the report’s key findings and conclusions:
- The impact of immigration on the wages of native-born workers overall is very small
- New immigrants mainly compete for jobs with prior immigrants or native-born workers who have not completed high school
- There is little evidence that immigration significantly affects the overall employment levels of native-born workers
- Immigration has an overall positive impact on long-run economic growth in the U.S.
- First-generation immigrants are more costly to governments, mainly at the state and local levels, than are the native-born, in large part due to the costs of educating their children.
- As adults, the children of immigrants — the second generation — are among the strongest economic and fiscal contributors in the U.S. population, contributing more in taxes than either their parents or the rest of the native-born population
- Over the long term, the impacts of immigrants on government budgets are generally positive at the federal level and negative at the state and local level, but the effects vary tremendously across states
- Immigration has helped the United States avoid the problems facing other economies that have stagnated as a result of an aging workforce
- The infusion of human capital by high-skilled immigrants has boosted the nation’s capacity for innovation
The National Academies of Sciences is a private, non-profit society of distinguished scholars. It was established by Congress in 1863 to provide independent, objective advice to the nation on science and technology. Members are elected by their peers.