The United States is a nation of immigrants. The U.S. has an extensive history of taking in people from across the world and allowing them the opportunity to create better lives for themselves and their families. The successful integration of these individuals have contributed to economic vitality and a progressive, always developing culture. Immigrants work hard to fully engulf themselves and contribute to American society with hopes that their title will one day shift from immigrant to American. When granted an opportunity to embrace American citizenship and identity, these individuals prove to be valuable members of society. They bring about technological innovation, fulfill jobs that the average citizen does not want to do, and they even protect the United States by serving in its armed services. Immigration brings about much needed labor and economic benefits enriching everything from the United States’ art, to technology and schooling. Despite this, they are usually met with backlash from those who fear that the United States that they know is changing too much for their liking. It is argued that certain ethnic immigrant groups cannot assimilate and bring nothing but financial problems to the United States. Is this fear really about economics or is it unwittingly a racially and culturally charged one? My research explores immigration’s effect on the U.S. economy as well as the role of race in present news’ discussions on immigration.

Most academic research shows that immigration has minimal long run effect on Americans’ wages despite some policymakers blaming immigration for slowing U.S. wage growth since the 1970s. In fact, evidence suggests that immigration contributes to a better educated workforce, better matching of skills to jobs, and overall more economic productivity. From an economic analysis standpoint, there is little support for the belief that the inflow of immigrant labor has reduced American’s jobs and wages. Foreign labor has proven to have a net positive effect on the combined budgets of federal, state, and local governments. Despite the positive effects on budgets, not all taxpayers benefit equally. One could make the point that in places where there are large populations of less educated and low-income immigrants, the native-born residents bear the burden of their net costs. According to the University of Penn Wharton’s Budget Model, “Native-born residents of states with large concentrations of less-educated immigrants may face larger tax burdens, as these immigrants pay less in taxes and are more likely to send children to public schools.” But it has been shown that immigrants usually improve a government’s fiscal situation by paying more taxes in the long run than they consume in the government provided services. This is due to the fact that immigrants spend their wages on things like homes and food which expands the domestic demand. This demand generates a need for more jobs to create and provide those things.

Overall, foreign born^[1] workers complement the average American worker. They don’t replace American born workers because immigrants are generally less skilled, so they tend to take on more manual, labor intensive work. If anything, they pose competition for each other. They are