Effects Of Immigration On The Economy

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The Effects of Immigration on The U.S. Economy

In the United States today there are over 11 million immigrants. Immigration has always been a key factor in the growth of our country and its economy, however, some people such as researcher Jim Demint, argue that immigration has gone too far, and instead of helping our cause, immigrants are adding to our $17 trillion dollar debt. Demint explains immigrants are creating more tax for tax payers, reducing wages, soaking up benefits without being a U.S. citizen, creating less employment opportunities for natives, and imposing more costs on schools, hospitals, and other services (Demint). On the other hand, researchers suggest that immigration helps to expand our economy. Doug Bandow of Forbes …show more content…

There are many benefits immigration has created in the U.S. economy. Immigrants migrating to America create a larger work force and in turn reduce the equilibrium unemployment rate in the long run. Steven A. Camarota’s research findings explain that “the presence of immigrant workers (legal and illegal) in the labor market makes the U.S. economy (GDP) an estimated 11 percent larger ($1.6 trillion) each year (Camarota).” Immigrants most often come to America because they don’t have the opportunities to make money in their home country that they would have here. This makes immigrants more inelastic suppliers of labour. They have a higher motivation to work, are more flexible, and if less educated, work for lower wages. Well educated immigrants help expand our economy by creating new businesses. These new businesses create more jobs for Americans, increase productivity, generate an increase in expenditures, an increase in output, and a downward pressure on inflation. With this increase in real wealth and more job opportunities for Americans to earn money, people will spend more. The increase in productivity will shift the short run aggregate supply to right and the aggregate demand to the right as well. We may also see a shift to the right in long run aggregate supply. As these theories provide insight as to how immigration positively impacts our economy, there are also ways in which immigration is negatively impacting our

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