Immigrants are saving the US economy. In 2023, the US economy grew at a 2.5% rate, "outpacing all other advanced economies." The US is on track "to do so again in 2024." This is only possible because of a substantial increase in immigration.
A new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research reveals that contrary to conventional wisdom, the immigrant workforce in America benefits native-born workers. The study concluded that "immigrants raise wages and boost the employment of U.S.-born workers." The study found that "immigration, thanks to native-immigrant complementarity and college skill content of immigrants, had a positive and significant effect between +1.7 to +2.6% on wages of less educated native workers, over the period 2000-2019 and no significant wage effect on college educated natives."
Giovanni Peri, one of the study's authors, explained this phenomenon. According to Peri, "[w]hen immigrants work in manual labor jobs, U.S.-born workers often specialize," moving into jobs with higher wages.
Further, Peri notes, "immigrants are not simply workers but consumers." With immigrants adding to the total number of consumers, there is "greater demand for labor and thus increased wages and employment in the economy."
The ability of immigrants to spur growth overall helps explain why immigration has "a positive employment rate effect for most native workers."
Another mostly unknown fact is that America's rural cities that are wasting away, are gradually being reborn thanks to immigration.
