Did You Know

Hey, did you know that the average immigrant pays $1,800 more in taxes than he or she receives in public benefits? Well, according to a study by the National Research Council and National Academy of Sciences, over their lifetimes the average immigrant and his or her immediate descendants contribute $80,000 more in taxes than they receive in benefits [1].

Well, I don't know about you, but I was VERY surprised by this particular factoid when I read it. So I, being of relative sound and curious mind, wanted to delve further into the world of immigrant contributions. Little did I know, immigrants and refugees have offered an incredible amount of positive input into the American economy and society. For instance, read below: One in every four doctors in the U.S. is foreign born, as well as one in three computer software engineers and more than 42 percent of medical scientists[2].

Immigrants helped to invent a quarter of the U.S. patent applicants in 2006 [3]. Undocumented immigrants contribute significantly to the U.S. workforce construction, agriculture, maintenance and hospitality; they pick and process our food and build and clean our homes and offices [4]. U.S. natives gain an estimated $37 billion a year from immigrants; participation in the U.S. economy, according to the President's Council of Economic Advisors.[5] Immigrants and refugees have started to get a really bad reputation; a reputation that is definitely not deserved. Everyone has their own opinion on Immigration issues, and everyone has a right to their own opinions. But the positive impact of immigrants and refugees in American society is difficult to argue with, when you actually take the time to learn the facts.

Personally, I appreciate that $37 billion, the new inventions, the medical practitioners, and all of the other positive gains immigrants and refugees make in our American communities. So next time you turn on the T.V. and see angry hordes claiming that immigrants are a drain on society, do your best to educate yourselves and those around you on the fact that that is simple not true.

-Katy Kauffman AmeriCorps VISTA for Project SHINE.

1. James P. Smith & Barry Edmonston, Editors, The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration. Washington, DC: National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences Press (1997) p 349, p 351.
2. Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix, “College-Educated Immigrant Workers in the United States,” Migration Policy Institute (2008). http://www.migrationinformation.org/USfocus/display.cfm?id=702
3. Vivek Wadhwa et. al., “Intellectual Property, the Immigration Backlog, and a Reverse Brain-Drain: America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part III,” Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (2007). http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedFiles/reverse_brain_drain_101807.pdf
4. Jeffrey S. Passel and D’Vera Cohen “A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States.,” Pew Hispanic Center, (2009). http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=107
5. White House Council of Economic Advisors, “Immigration’s Economic Impact,” (2007). http://caimmigrant.org/repository/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/CEAImmigrat... Fact information: http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/report.php?ID=104