{"id":10683,"date":"2024-04-08T09:28:58","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T13:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/?p=10683"},"modified":"2024-04-08T09:40:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T13:40:34","slug":"10683","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/2024\/04\/08\/10683\/","title":{"rendered":"BU Economist Shows Immigrants Help Fuel Local Economies"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article by Andrew Thurston<\/a> was originally published in the THE BRINK<\/a> on April 4, 2024.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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When Americans mark their presidential election ballots later this year, immigration will be top of mind\u2014it\u2019s the nation\u2019s number one issue, according to\u00a0<\/span>pollster Gallup<\/a>. And one of the toughest talkers on the topic is former president and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. He\u2019s built his political career on calls to secure the border and defend America against what he says are immigration\u2019s dangers, warning of\u00a0<\/span>shrinking wages<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>stretched benefits programs<\/a>. \u201cWhen you have millions of people coming in,\u201d he\u00a0<\/span>recently told a crowd in Michigan<\/a>, \u201cthey\u2019re going to take your jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immigrants stealing work from existing residents is a well-worn contention\u2014with a history\u00a0<\/span>stretching back at least 100 years<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>right up to\u00a0<\/span>present-day accusations that Tyson Foods<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>could replace American workers with immigrant labor. But it\u2019s also a false one, according to\u00a0<\/span>Boston University economist Tarek Hassan<\/a>, whose recent studies have shown immigrants actually help fuel local economies by sparking innovation and driving up wages. The effects of a migrant influx can last for decades, too, enhancing a region\u2019s attractiveness to foreign investors and opening long-term export opportunities, even 100 years later. Oftentimes, when immigrants move into an area, so do native workers, drawn by the promise of an invigorated economy.<\/p>\n

In one recent paper, Hassan, a BU College of Arts & Sciences professor of economics, also showed that living near people from other countries can shift native views on people of foreign descent, decreasing hostility and prejudice, while boosting empathy and knowledge. Residents who live alongside those people may also be less likely to vote for political candidates who demonize them.<\/p>\n

But there are important details that complicate the picture\u2014at least from an economics perspective. Hassan\u2019s research has shown that not everyone benefits the same way from a rush of migration, and that may strike a chord with some of the millions of voters who want to stem the tide. Despite the overall positive effects to a community, the flow of new residents does nothing to boost the wages of existing workers who don\u2019t have a high school diploma. And the education and skill level of migrants matters, too: more education equals a more positive economic effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe headline finding is that immigrants are good for local economic growth and, in particular, educated migrants are doing a lot of that,\u201d says Hassan. \u201cAt the same time, the data point to why some people might have problems with this. It\u2019s a lopsided story where the immigration we\u2019ve experienced in the last 40 years has been disproportionately benefiting the more educated local population. We\u2019re trying to add some facts to the debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immigration\u2019s Impact on Economic Growth<\/h2>\n

Hassan\u2019s family story is one of migration\u2014of crossing borders and navigating shifting national boundaries. \u201cI come from a family with a rather complex migration history,\u201d says Hassan. His father was an immigrant to Germany from Egypt, his mother a refugee from East to West Germany. Hassan was raised in Germany, but moved to the United States for graduate school and has now lived here for nearly 20 years. \u201cYou have to go back many generations to find somebody who was actually born in the same country they died in,\u201d he says of his family. \u201cBut I think that\u2019s true for a large chunk of the population.\u201d<\/p>\n

He admits he finds the national debate on immigration frustrating. \u201cThere\u2019s very little interest in nuanced information\u2014on both sides of the debate. There\u2019s this view among some people that all immigration is good and should be encouraged, and there\u2019s this other view that all immigration is terrible. There\u2019s not much interest in listening to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his research, he hopes to foster a more informed conversation.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0<\/span>working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research<\/a>, Hassan and his colleagues examined decades of US migration data to look at the impact of new arrivals on economic growth, wage levels, and innovation, which they measured through the number of new patents filed in a particular area. More new ideas, he says, generally means more new businesses and products: \u201cWe find that when you have 10,000 extra immigrants arriving in a given US county, the number of patents filed per capita in that county dramatically increases, by something like 25 percent.\u201d It was an effect that rippled out as far as 150 miles. The research team also estimated that, since 1965, migration of foreign nationals to the US may have contributed to an additional 5 percent growth in wages. They\u2019re currently preparing the findings for journal publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore immigrants creates more economic growth,\u201d says Hassan. \u201cAnd because it creates more economic growth locally, it raises the wages of the people who are already there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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More immigrants creates more economic growth. And because it creates more economic growth locally, it raises the wages of the people who are already there.<\/div>\n