Title: Facts About Immigration and the U.S. Economy: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions | Economic Policy Institute
Headings: Facts About Immigration and the U.S. Economy
Facts About Immigration and the U.S. Economy
:
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
EPI FAQ
The immigrant population
1. How many immigrants reside in the United States?
2. How many unauthorized immigrants are in the United States?
3. Are most immigrants Hispanic/Latino?
Unauthorized immigrant population in the United States, by region of birth, 2008 (in thousands)
Immigrants and the economy
4. How much do immigrants contribute to the economy?
Immigrant and U.S.-born shares of total U.S. economic output
5. Are most immigrants employed in low-wage jobs?
6. Are most immigrants poor?
7. Do immigrants take jobs away from American workers?
8. Does immigration depress wages for American workers?
Impact of immigration on wages, by education level, 1994–2007
Unauthorized immigrants
9. Do unauthorized immigrants increase budget costs for states or the federal government?
10. Do unauthorized immigrants use public support programs like welfare, unemployment insurance, and food stamps?
11. Couldn’t we just deport the 11.7 million unauthorized immigrants?
12. Should we wait until the economy has recovered before regularizing the unauthorized immigrant population?
Unaccompanied migrant children
13. Why are tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children from Central America showing up on the Southwest U.S. border?
14. How many unaccompanied migrant children have arrived from Central America and Mexico in the past few years?
Unaccompanied alien children encountered, by fiscal year, fiscal 2009–2014*
15. Is the United States the only country that Salvadorians, Guatemalans, and Hondurans are fleeing to?
16. Does the arrival of unaccompanied migrant children mean the U.S. border is not secure?
17. What happens to these unaccompanied migrant children? Do we just send them home?
18. Is the U.S. immigration system equipped to handle the increased flow of unaccompanied migrant children?
Labor migration
19. Which legal routes are available to immigrants seeking to work in the United States?
20. What are the different classifications of employment-based (EB) immigrant visas?
21. What are the annual numerical limits on EB immigrant visas?
22. What are the different classifications of nonimmigrant visas that permit employment in the United States?
Description and typical occupations of common nonimmigrant visa classifications that authorize employment
23. What are the annual numerical limits and periods of stay that are allowed on the major nonimmigrant visa classifications that permit employment?
Annual numerical limit, number of visas granted in fiscal 2013, and period of stay for the most common nonimmigrant visa classifications that permit employment
24. Are employers required to pay temporary foreign workers the minimum wage?
25. Can temporary foreign workers switch employers?
26. Which regions and countries do permanent immigrant workers come from?
Number of permanent, employment-based immigrant visas granted, by immigrants’ region of birth, fiscal 2013
Number of permanent, employment-based immigrant visas granted, by immigrants’ country of birth, fiscal 2013
27. Which regions and countries do temporary foreign workers come from?
About the authors
Endnotes

Content: Are most immigrants poor? Nationally, and in many states, the income of immigrant families is not very different from that of non-immigrant families, although individual earnings are lower for immigrants overall. This is because there are typically more workers per immigrant family. Although most immigrants are not poor, nationally 20 percent live below the poverty line, compared with 16 percent of native-born citizens. 10
7. Do immigrants take jobs away from American workers? There is broad agreement among academic economists that in the long run, immigration has a small but positive impact on the labor market outcomes of native-born workers, on average. 11 There is some debate about whether, within the overall small positive effect, certain subgroups are harmed, in particular native-born workers with low levels of education. The evidence shows that in the long run, immigrants do not reduce native employment rates. But some evidence suggests that in the short run, immigration may slightly reduce native employment, because the economy takes time to adjust to new immigration.