themselves of food stamps or Medicaid. Educating immigrants’ children tends to pay off in the long term with the second generation making greater contributions to the economy. Recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program are 26 years old on average and part of generational change as they work their way up the economic ladder. Haveman believes that attempts to deport them are foolish. “From an economic perspective, it’s ludicrous. We’ve paid to educate them. We, as a society, have made big investments in them,” he says, and deporting them would prevent that investment from paying off. He adds that DACA individuals might have been 5 when they arrived in the United States and don’t know any other home, and 1.3 million American citizens and legal residents live with them. “We’d be ripping apart a lot of families,” he says, as well as taking a reasonably well-educated part of the economy out of production. Haveman believes that immigration has little downside. “Most of it is upside. A good thing would be to increase the number of people we let in in an authorized way,” he says, because that would allow them to participate more fully in the economy, which would be better for them and us. “They contribute everywhere in the economy,” he says. . g
Give and take The most-expressed belief is that immigrants take away from native-born Americans. However, says Haveman, “Research shows that’s just not right. Immigrants don’t just work when they’re here. They live.” They pay for housing, shop to meet their daily needs and buy cars. They also help unskilled Americans. He gives the example of an individual who starts a lawn- mowing business and does all the work on his own, because it’s too expensive to hire help. Immigrants, though, will work at a relatively low wage, so he can hire someone to mow the lawns and repair equipment, thus allowing him to be client- faced and grow his business. “It’s a step up the economic ladder,” says Haveman. Immigrants provide services such as childcare and housekeeping for professional women, such as doctors and lawyers, as well, allowing them to provide services to the community. Thus, immigrants make opportunities for advancement possible for people born here. Immigrants do come with costs. If they have children, they attend public schools, creating expenses for governments. “At the state level, it’s probably true that immigrants cost more than they contribute to state coffers, but given the overall positive impact on the economy, we don’t know that for sure,” says Haveman. He explains that at the federal level, legal immigrants are probably putting in more than they take out. Most come at prime working age, and they put in 13% more than they take out and contribute $22.6 billion to Social Security and $5.7 billion in Medicare payments annually. Locally, they pay sales tax and property tax through rent. If they’re not authorized, some use fake documentation to get jobs and pay state and federal taxes. They’re not eligible for benefits, however, and cannot avail
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