The conventional wisdom that says immigrants take jobs from Americans holds about as much truth as the tale of the tooth fairy. I think I can speak for all immigrants, legal or not, when I say that the only thing as obnoxious as getting told “speak English – you’re in America” or “go back to your old country if you’re so upset” is the ever so popular, “immigrants come here to steal jobs from Americans.” The statement that used to humor me now seems to be the vox populi amongst White America.
Let me be the first to say that the Americans who support this claim are typically the ones who fail to notice how flawed this nation is – because they never had the opportunity to cross its borders.
Immigrants generally come to America for one purpose – to seek a better life for themselves and their children. If this means working manual labor jobs that no one else will take, they’re in. And that’s exactly what is happening.
Immigrants provide labor for American employers and open up businesses, thus creating jobs, contrary to popular belief.
Michelle Obama said it best: “No country can ever flourish if it…deprives itself of half of its citizens.” Second-generation immigrants with improved education add about $30 billion per year to government finances and third-generation immigrants contribute $223 billion per year.
A research report from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found “little to no negative effects on overall wages and employment of native-born workers.”
The belief that immigrants come to this country to steal jobs from native-born Americans is merely a fallacy that has been debunked by economists time after time. Remember, immigrants make America great!