Immigrants Are Powering American Workers and the Economy

Beatriz Lopez, Deputy Director of the Immigration Hub

Lost in the immigration debate is one significant fact: immigrants are powering the current American economy. While sensational reporting, political banter, and electoral advertising have focused on the southern border, there’s been a steady stream of news reports and economic analyses that highlight how immigrants, both newly-arrived and long-settled immigrant workers, have filled critical labor shortages, reduced inflation, raised the wages for their fellow American workers, positioned us to grow our economy by $7 trillion and cut down the deficit in coming years, and made us the top country among the G7. Hamilton was right – immigrants get the job done!

Recent studies by the Brookings Institute and The Briefing’s Ernie Tedeschi summed up all the great outcomes of immigration post-pandemic:

• Expanded legal pathways and more newly arrived migrants are driving strong hiring and strengthening the labor market. The result as Wendy Edelberg and Tara Watson of the Brookings’ Hamilton Project write: “Now that we know that the labor force was much larger due to the increased immigration, we are no longer so concerned about employment growth running too hot and pushing up prices. For those keeping an eye on the monthly employment reports, we calculate that if strong immigration continues this year, employment growth of nearly 200,000 workers a month is consistent with a healthy labor market.”
• More immigrants means more consumer spending means huge gains in GDP. What the experts say, “[W]e directly attribute $46 billion of last year’s real consumer spending (in inflation-adjusted 2017 dollars to be consistent with statistics from the Bureau of Economic Analysis) to the recent increase in immigration.” And they expect that strong immigration will help grow America’s GDP by 0.1 percentage points while boosting consumer spending growth by 0.2 percentage points. In other words, we’re booming.
• America’s epic economic growth - thanks to immigration - fueled our fierce comeback among the G7. Tedeschi breaks it down plainly, “All together, immigrants since 2019 directly account for about one-fifth of America’s extraordinary pandemic growth.” The enormous gap in GDP between the U.S. and Canada, European countries and Japan is the quintessential economy 101 lesson – when you fear and block migrants from your shores, you end up losing big to the nation of immigrants. 

And what’s better than all this great news and listening to Cowboy Carter? Nothing except hearing that the surge in immigration will continue to add more jobs without overheating the economy and that in turn could seduce the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, according to Wall St. Journal. It’s music to a millennial’s ear in wait of buying their first home.

Now, imagine if President Biden built on his successful expansion of legal pathways and offered long-settled immigrants, including family caregivers, Dreamers, spouses of U.S. citizens, and other workers, an on-ramp to legal status and eventual citizenship, the boost to our economy (and his poll numbers) would be more remarkable than what they are today. Even the experts agree that citizenship for families would be stellar for America’s finances.

A new 2024 study on recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) demonstrates how legalization for undocumented immigrants creates economic benefits for all of us. In DACA, Mobility Investments, and Economic Outcomes of Immigrants and Natives, the researchers, Jimena Villanueva Kiser and Riley Wilson, found that the DACA program allowed individuals to move and make big investments, shift into high-skilled occupations (such as teachers, childcare workers, nurses, engineers and licensed professionals), and create gains in wages not just for themselves, but their American counterparts as well. 

“In fact, earnings of U.S.-born workers steadily increase in labor markets that have been more exposed to DACA legalization since its implementation in 2012. These findings suggest that native workers do not bear the costs of unauthorized immigrant legalization, and indicate instead the potential for positive local spillovers associated with such policies,” Kiser and Wilson write. 

If not for Trump and the far right politicizing and weaponizing immigration, the economic benefits of immigration would lead us to a long overdue policy fix: a modernized immigration system with an updated pathway to citizenship that would meet the economic demands of the nation. In absence of Congress doing the logical math, President Biden and his administration could take action by updating the caregiver rule, making the path to citizenship more accessible to undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens, and expanding Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to workers and families who have long contributed to the U.S. and would be returned to dangerous conditions if deported. By offering legal pathways to these populations, nearly 3 million Dreamers and other immigrant workers of mixed-status families would be able to finally get closer to a green card and citizenship after years of waiting for immigration reform. 

What’s more, despite all the negative noise on immigration, the American public supports solutions that offer an avenue to apply for citizenship. And that’s what the immigration debate should be about – how do we meet the demands of the economy and the public? The answer isn’t mass deportation or inaction. It’s the economy – and citizenship, stupid!  

📸 Stay tuned and follow along as we share some of our more recent moments and highlights from our social media channels.

1️⃣ ICYMI: Strong voter support for compassionate immigration reform uncovered! From championing Dreamers to advocating for humane border policies, Americans stand together for fair solutions. 

2️⃣ In a recent AP article, Hub Deputy Director Beatriz Lopez urged Democrats to prioritize a pressing concern: establishing pathways to citizenship for long-standing immigrants. Check out our social post here, which includes a link to the article itself. 

3️⃣ Amidst navigating economic complexities and labor demands, one thing is evident: Immigrants are vital for our community's prosperity.

4️⃣ Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) delivered House-approved articles of impeachment against DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate. These fruitless stunts drain valuable time, energy, and resources from urgent immigration reform matters. It's time to remind GOP extremists that their actions won't distract us from real issues.

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