Nearly 1,500 economists attest to the economic benefits of immigration

By Douglas Holtz-Eakin & Patrick Hefflinger.

"Nearly 1,500 economists, including six winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics and covering the spectrum of political preferences, signed a letter to President Trump and the leadership of the House and Senate attesting to the economic benefits of immigration. (I organized the letter along with the folks at New American Economy.) The letter makes the very straightforward points:

• Immigration brings entrepreneurs who start new businesses that hire American workers.
• Immigration brings young workers who help offset the large-scale retirement of baby boomers.
• Immigration brings diverse skill sets that keep our workforce flexible, help companies grow, and increase the productivity of American workers.
• Immigrants are far more likely to work in innovative, job-creating fields such as science, technology, engineering, and math that create life-improving products and drive economic growth.

In short, immigration is — on balance, as there are admittedly costs as well as benefits — a central contributor to American economic dynamism. Moreover, it has remained so even as the character of immigration has changed over the centuries (hat tip to the Wall Street Journal for this fantastic graphic), with the most recent period dominated by Latinos.

The old joke is that if you laid all the economists end-to-end, they would not reach a conclusion. Immigration may be the exception that proves this rule."