Study: Citizenship for Undoc – $1.4 Trillion to Economy
By Caroline Fairchild, Huffington Post Latino Voices
Granting undocumented immigrants immediate citizenship would add $1.4 trillion to economic growth, increase tax revenues by $184 billion and create 203,000 jobs over the next decade, according to a new study from the Center for American Progress.
“Unauthorized immigrants are currently earning far less than their potential, paying much less in taxes, and contributing significantly less to the U.S. economy than they potentially could,” authors Robert Lynch and Patrick Oakford explain in the report.
Within five years of earning citizenship, an undocumented worker would make 25.1 percent more annually, Lynch, the Everett E. Nuttle professor and chair of the Department of Economics at Washington College, told The Huffington Post. These wage gains “ripple through the economy” as immigrants use their income to stimulate the economy and pay taxes, he writes in the report.
Lynch and Oakford also studied the economic impact of providing legal status in 2013 but waiting five years to grant citizenship. The researchers found that a delay in granting citizenship would mean it would take 10 years instead of five for the incomes of the undocumented to increase 25.1 percent leading to a smaller positive impact on the economy.
“The timing of immigration reform has a huge impact on the overall economic benefits,” Lynch told HuffPost. “The sooner you provide legalization and citizenship, the…
This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Vocies.
Caroline Fairchild is an Associate Business Editor at The Huffington Post. She has previously worked at Bloomberg News, PBS Frontline and NBC-affiliate WNCN. She can be reached at 212-402-7233 or caroline.fairchild@huffingtonpost.com
[Photo by SEIU International]