Changing Misconceptions About Immigration

March 25, 2011 (Press-News.org) When French president Nicolas Sarkozy recently declared that France's efforts at "multiculturalism" were a failure, it reminded those of us in the United States that we're not the only country in the world grappling with issues related to foreign immigration. But while European countries have tended to focus on the cultural side of the immigration debate, Americans are often focused on the perceived economic problems of immigration. As it turns out, Americans have less to worry about on both fronts than the current rhetoric might lead one to believe.

Economically, immigrants provide essential services, from entrepreneurial tech businesses to manual labor. Immigrants founded one in four engineering and technology companies launched in the United States between 1995 and 2005, and many technology companies report that they would like to see current immigration restrictions eased, as they have difficulty finding sufficient highly-skilled workers in the U.S.

On the other end of the pay scale, immigrants fill many low-paying jobs, from farm labor to service industries such as cleaning. If these same jobs were held by non-immigrants -- who are used to much higher hourly wages -- the costs of basic goods and services would skyrocket.

Beyond the positive impact that immigrants have on the U.S. labor force lies the familiar argument that immigrants are a drain on governmental resources. But state and federal data paints a different picture. Texas reported in 2006 that undocumented immigrants generate more taxes and other revenue than the state spends on them. And a national survey found that approximately two-thirds of immigrant workers had Social Security and other income taxes withheld from their paychecks, yet few filed a tax return or used public services such as food stamps, unemployment, or Supplemental Security Income. In other words, they're putting money into the U.S. Treasury, but not taking it out.

The data on cultural assimilation is positive, as well. Today, no one questions the great cultural contributions from Italians or Jews, two of the top immigrant groups of a century ago. Yet today's immigrants are actually learning English faster than their predecessors 100 years ago -- for example, Spanish is the primary language of only 7 percent of second-generation Latinos immigrants today.

Since colonial times, the U.S. has debated the question of how much immigration is ideal. And over that time, every group of newcomers has faced skepticism over their cultural and economic contributions. Fortunately today, we can replace fear and doubt with solid statistical data about the impact immigration has on the country. And the data clearly shows that immigration is a net positive for the U.S., the "Nation of Immigrants."

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