Immigrants positively impact the U.S. economy and labor market.
That is one of the key points presented at a Brookings Institution event held in Washington, D.C. on June 12.
“Immigrants are a really important component of our economy,” said economist Tara Watson of Brookings. “We have immigrants disproportionately represented as workers in our labor force. And when we have seen a recent growth in immigration of several million people, we have similarly seen a growth in our labor force.”
Watson presented her research along with Madeline Zavodny from the University of North Florida and political scientist Ruy Teixeira of the American Enterprise Institute in a heated and emotional debate. It was all part of an event called “The Economics and Politics of Immigration” that discussed the connection between these two topics in the upcoming 2024 U.S. elections.
Teixeira emphasized that immigration is a top concern based on recent polls. He noted that the public is most concerned with illegal immigration, which many Americans see as a crisis that needs to be addressed because the U.S. has a broken system.
