A look to the past:
Historically, there have been two major immigration events to the United States. Ran Abramitzky from Stanford University states that one has come from Europe and currently one originating mainly from Asia and Latin America.
Other contributions immigrants have to America is their role in the business world. They have a skewed result on business because most of the immigrants are working age. They also make up a greater amount of small business owners than native-born, according to Daniel Costa and the graph to the left. In addition, Joshua Culling reports in “The Economic Benefits of Immigration” that “High-skilled immigrants create new businesses, invent new products and services, and create jobs."
In addition to this, Culling also explains how the largest growth of the U.S. economy has occurred in conjunction with surges of immigration. “The largest and most sustained period of American economic growth occurred from 1840 to 1914, during which the U.S. economy became the largest in the world." It also goes on to say that this time frame perfectly coincides with the first heavy increase in immigration.
Conclusion
Immigration impacts the American economy in many positive, unforeseen ways. From undocumented immigrants netting a positive gain for the government in terms of taxes, to the substantial portion of workers that immigrate and form small businesses, immigrants are essential to the growth of the economy. This is also supported by the fact that the largest surges in the economy have been supplied with the largest immigration events in American history. Immigrants also contribute a huge figure of money to the U.S. economy, and without it, America would not be the same. America, after all, is a nation of immigrants.
WORKS CITED
Chart by the Small Business Administration, that is an analysis of the 2010 Current Population Survey
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