Economic Benefits Of Immigration

The Economic Benefits of Immigration

Aseel Al Mohammadi

Zayed University Martin and Midgley states that immigrants now are 31 million individuals in United States (as cited in Stewart and Jameson, 2013). Immigration is sometimes a process of traveling from one’s native country to another due to lack of job opportunities or disasters. According to Stewart & Jameson (2013), the U.S is considered to be a nation of immigrants and it strikes fear into citizen’s hearts because of the potential affect of immigrants on the labor market. Some people think that immigration should be stopped because there are negative effects to the economy. However, Immigration should be encouraged because there are obvious benefits to the economy of the host country

First, immigrants participate in the country’s gross domestic product because they are hard workers. According to West (2011), a study made in 2007 by the White House Council, claimed that immigrants increased American domestic gross product by $37 billion a year. For example, they mostly work in the manufacturing sector that will increase the production for higher domestic gross product. According to West (2011), immigration adds a third of the population to the overall population growth, enabling a great number of factories to start their businesses. On the other hand, immigration increases state revenue depending on the number of immigrants. According to Hinojosa-Ojeda (2012), California revenue will rise by $5.3 billion, $1.9 billion for Los Angeles, and $1.68 billion for Arizona. Overall, California gains more revenue than Los Angeles and Arizona because California has more flexible immigration policies and encourages immigrants to live in California without strict rules.

Secondly, immigrants are always taxpayers because they try to evade prosecution. According to West (2011), the labor force participates in tax payments because they pay for social security and income; in addition, federal, state, and local taxes received $162 billion from immigrants in 2011 (West, 2011). California received

For example, educated immigrants contribute to the technology sector, which leads to innovations. Moreover, immigrants participate in the educational sector, increasing the number of scientists in the last decades. First, educated immigrants do not neglect the technology sector that creates new innovations. According to Martin (2013), immigrants share a lot of Nobel prizes because they are widely known as innovators. For example, Brin was born in Moscow, and he is known as the innovator of the Google search engine. He migrated to the United States when he was young. He then met with his colleague Larry Page who was interested in data mining, and as a result they created the successful company known as Google (West, 2011). Another example of an innovator is Pierre Omidyar. He born in Paris, but later moved to America (West, 2011). According to West (2011), Pierre Omidyar earned a higher degree in computer, and in 1995 he created the most famous online auction service known as Auction Web. On the other hand immigrants contribute to the educational sector, increasing the number of scientists. According to Hanson (2012), foreign students share the most PhDs degree: three fifths of the degrees in physical sciences; three fourths in computer science and mathematics; and half in science. However, Stuen, Maskus and Mobarak stated that most foreign graduate students invest their time conducting academic research, and their