Immigrants do not hurt our economy

This piece shows how immigrants create jobs at the same time they are taking them. DP

for The Dallas Morning News By BENJAMIN POWELL

Vanguardia: The Providence Journal / OAKLAND, CAL. (THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS).- During the past five years, more new immigrants came to the United States than ever before in our history -- nearly 8 million, according to a new study by the Center for Immigration Studies.

This influx has stirred much public debate. But before we adopt new policies, politicians need to distinguish clearly between the real problems caused by immigration and non-problems based on popular myths.

Probably the number-one misconception about immigration is that it harms our economy. In reality, conservative estimates put the net annual gain to the U.S. economy from current immigration at about $20 billion. Instead of recognizing this overall gain, immigration critics typically assert that immigrants take away American jobs, depress wages and drain our tax dollars by consuming social services.

A fundamental truth about our economy is that as long as we desire more goods and services than we have, the number of jobs is practically unlimited. In fact, when we have more workers, we create more jobs. Total employment and the size of the labor force have tracked each other fairly closely over the past 50 years, despite dramatic changes in immigration flows.
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