By Jason Furman and Danielle Gray, The White House, July 12, 2012. Republished by Dreamlight High School.
America is a nation of immigrants. Our American journey and our success would simply not be possible without the generations of immigrants who have come to our shores from every corner of the globe. It is helpful to take a moment to reflect on the important contributions of the generations of immigrants who have helped us build our economy and made America the economic engine of the world.
How do immigrants strengthen the U.S. economy? Below is our top 10 list of ways immigrants help grow the American economy.
- Immigrants start businesses. According to the Small Business Administration, immigrants are 30 percent more likely to start a business in the United States than non-immigrants, and 18 percent of all small business owners in the United States are immigrants.
- Immigrant-owned businesses create jobs for American workers. According to the Fiscal Policy Institute, small businesses owned by immigrants employed an estimated 4.7 million people in 2007 and generated more than $776 billion annually.
- Immigrants are more likely to create their own jobs. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 7.5 percent of the foreign born are self-employed compared to 6.6 percent among the native-born.
- Immigrants develop cutting-edge technologies and companies. According to the National Venture Capital Association, immigrants have started 25 percent of public U.S. companies that were backed by venture capital investors, including Google, eBay, Yahoo!, Sun Microsystems and Intel.
- Immigrants are our engineers, scientists and innovators. Despite making up only 16 percent of the resident population holding a bachelor’s degree or higher, immigrants represent 33 percent of engineers, 27 percent of mathematicians, statisticians and computer scientists, and 24 percent of physical scientists. In 2011, foreign-born inventors contributed to more than 75 percent of patents issued to the top 10 patent-producing universities.
- Immigration boosts earnings for American workers. Between 1990 and 2004, increased immigration was correlated with increasing earnings of Americans by 0.7 percent, and is expected to contribute to an increase of 1.8 percent over the long term, according to a study by the University of California at Davis.
- Immigrants boost demand for local consumer goods. The Immigration Policy Center estimated that the purchasing power of Latinos and Asians, many of whom are immigrants, would reach $1.5 trillion and $775 billion respectively by 2015.
- Immigration reform legislation like the DREAM Act reduces the deficit. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the 2010 House-passed version of the DREAM Act would reduce the federal deficit by $2.2 billion over ten years because of increased tax revenues.
- Comprehensive immigration reform would create jobs. It could support and create up to 900,000 new jobs within three years of reform from the increase in consumer spending, according to the Center for American Progress.
- Comprehensive immigration reform would increase America’s GDP. The Congressional Budget Office found that even under low investment assumptions, comprehensive immigration reform would increase GDP by between 0.8 and 1.3 percent from 2012 to 2016.
As a nation of immigrants, we must remember that generations of immigrants have helped lay the railroads and build our cities, pioneer new industries and fuel our Information Age, from Google to the iPhone. As President Obama said at a naturalization ceremony held at the White House:
“Immigration makes America stronger. Immigration makes us more prosperous. And immigration positions America to lead in the 21st century.”
We celebrate the contributions of all Americans to building our nation and its economy, including the generations of immigrants.