Immigrant Diversity Boosts Native-Born Wages: New at Reason
New study finds that workers living in cities that welcome immigrants generally earn higher wages.
"The benefits that immigration brings to society far outweigh their costs," declares an open letter to congressional leaders and President Donald Trump. The letter, published on Wednesday and signed by nearly 1,500 economists—including six Nobel Prize winners—notes that immigrant entrepreneurs start new businesses that hire lots of Americans; that immigrants are far more likely to work in innovative, job-creating fields such as science, technology, and engineering; and that they bring diverse skill sets that keep our workforce flexible, help companies grow, and increase the productivity of American workers. A new study in the journal Economic Geography parsing employment data between 1991 and 2008 confirms that immigrants significantly boost both the productivity and the wages of workers.
