Immigration report

Immigration has positive long-term impacts on government budgets at the federal level and negative impacts at the state and local level, according to a report by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The MacArthur-supported report assesses the economic and demographic trends of U.S. immigration over the past 20 years, its impact on the labor market and wages of native-born workers, and its fiscal impact at the national, state, and local levels. The report finds that, over the long term, impacts of immigrants on government budgets are generally positive at the federal level but negative at the state level when the costs of educating children of immigrants are included. The report points out that these children on average go on to have a positive fiscal impact. There was little evidence that immigration affects the overall employment levels of native-born U.S. workers; to the extent that negative impacts occur, they are most likely to be found for prior immigrants or native-born workers who have not completed high school.