Social and economic impacts of immigration on U.S. communities

Key Concepts

• Immigrants comprise about 14% of the U.S. population, and about 26% of all Americans are either immigrants or the children of immigrants.
• U.S. population growth has been slowing for many years, largely because of declining birthrates, and now stands at about 0.5% increase per year. Nearly two-thirds of this small increase is from internal growth of American families and a little more than one-third of U.S. growth is from immigration.
• Growth of the U.S. labor-force (defined as those willing and able to work) is slowing, especially with the aging of the Baby Boomer generation, and the labor force would be shrinking without the addition of immigrants and their children.
• Overall, Immigration has little or no effect on wages and employment of most native-born American workers, with the exception of some very low-skilled workers and other immigrants. Immigration impacts different job sectors differently, but according to a 2017 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, “Immigration has an overall positive impact on long-run economic growth in the U.S.”
• Immigrants are rejuvenating many U.S. non-metropolitan communities and counties that, without in-migration, would today be shrinking instead of growing.
• Today’s immigrants integrate into American society at a pace similar to that seen in earlier waves of immigration, with second generation (U.S.-born) children of immigrants generally attaining the same educational and economic achievements as Americans overall.

A Few Facts to Know

• Less than one-quarter of the foreign-born U.S. population, or about 11 million of the nation’s approximately 45 million foreign-born individuals, are unauthorized immigrants.
• The population of unauthorized immigrants peaked in 2006 and has fallen by almost 2 million since then.
• Since about 2010, the percentage of unauthorized immigrants in the United States because of visa overstays has exceeded the number crossing the border illegally each year, with about two thirds now attributable to visa overstays.
• Since 2009, there have been more immigrants from Asia than from Latin America.
• Migration between the United States and Mexico occurs in both directions; net migration from Mexico to the United States has been zero since the Great Recession of 2008.
• Immigrants over all contribute significantly to the U.S. economy. Compared to native-born Americans, a higher percentage of them are actively working (63.4% of foreign-born adults vs. 59.8 percent of native-born adults in 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics); immigrants are responsible for a disproportionately high percentage of U.S. patents, which ultimately contributes to productivity and growth; and immigrant labor also helps to reduce the prices of some goods and services, which benefits consumers in a range of sectors including child care, food preparation, house cleaning and repair, and construction.

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