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Myths
Immigrants don’t want to learn English
The development of English
proficiency among non-English speaking immigrants today mirrors that of
Nineteenth and early Twentieth century immigration, when masses of
Italian, German, and Eastern European immigrants came to America. While
first generation, non-English speaking immigrants predictably have lower
rates of English proficiency than native speakers, 91% of second
generation immigrants are fluent or near fluent English speakers. By
the third generation, 97% speak English fluently or near fluently.
(Source: Shirin Hakimzadeh and
D’Vera Cohn, “English Usage Among Hispanics in the United States,” Pew
Hispanic Forum, Dec. 6, 2007.
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=82; Janet Murguia
and Cecilia Muñoz, “From Immigrant to Citizen,” The American Prospect
(Oct. 23, 2005),
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=10487)
Immigrants Don’t Pay Taxes
Undocumented immigrants pay taxes.
Between one half and three quarters of undocumented immigrants pay state
and federal taxes. They also contribute to Medicare and provide as much
as 7 billion dollars a year to the Social Security Fund. Further still,
undocumented workers pay sales taxes where applicable and property
taxes—directly if they own and indirectly if they rent.
(Source: Immigration Policy Center,
“Undocumented Immigrants as Taxpayers,” (November 2007),
http://www.ailf.org/ipc/factchecks/UndocumentedasTaxpayer.pdf;
Eduardo Porter “ Illegal Immigrants are Bolstering Social Security with
Billions,” New York Times, (April 5, 2005),
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/business/05immigration.html?ex=1270353600&en=78c87ac4641dc383&ei=5090&partner=kmarx)
Immigrants Increase the Crime rate
Recent research has shown that
immigrant communities do not increase the crime rate and that immigrants
commit fewer crimes than native born Americans. While the undocumented
immigrant population doubled from 1994 to 2005, violent crime dropped by
34% and property crimes decreased by 32%. Furthermore, Harvard
sociologist Robert Sampson has found that first generation immigrants
are 45% less likely to commit violent crimes than Americanized, third
generation immigrants.
(Source: Immigration Policy Center,
“Ímmigrants and Crime: Are They Connected,” December, 2007,
http://www.ailf.org/ipc/factchecks/CrimeFactCheck10-16-07.pdf;
Robert Sampson, “Open Doors Don’t Invite Criminals,” The New York
Times, March 11, 2006, A15; Executive Office of the President:
Council of Economic Advisors, “Immigration’s Economic Impact,” June 20,
2007, http://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/cea_immigration_062007.html)
Immigrants Take Jobs Away from Americans
A recent study produced by the Pew
Hispanic Center reveals that “Rapid increases in the foreign-born
population at the state level are not associated with negative effects
on the employment of native-born workers.” In fact, given that the
number of native born low wage earners is falling nationally, immigrants
are playing an important role in offsetting that decline. The Urban
Institute reports that between 2000 and 2005 the total number of low
wage workers declined by approximately 1.8 million while the number of
unskilled immigrant workers increased by 620,000, thus offsetting the
total decline by about a third.
(Source: The Urban Institute,
“Trends in the Low-Wage Immigrant Labor Force, 2000-2005,” March, 2007,
http://www.urban.org/publications/411426.html; Rakesh Kochhar,
“Growth in the Foreign Born Workforce and Employment of the Native
Born,” Pew Hispanic Center, August 10, 2006,
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=69)
Immigrants
are a drain on the United States Economy
The immigrant community is not a
drain on the U.S. economy but, in fact, proves to be a net benefit.
Research reported by both the CATO Institute and the President’s Council
of Economic Advisors reveals that the average immigrant pays a net
80,000 dollars more in taxes than they collect in government services.
For immigrants with college degrees the net fiscal return is $198,000.
Furthermore, The American Farm Bureau asserts that without guest
workers the U.S. economy would lose as much as $9 billion a year in
agricultural production and 20 percent of current production would go
overseas.
(Source: CATO Institute, CATO
Handbook for Congress: Policy Recommendations for the 108th
Congress,
http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/hb108-63.pdf; Executive
Office of the President: Council of Economic Advisors, “Immigration’s
Economic Impact,” June 20, 2007,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/cea_immigration_062007.html; Derrick
Z. Jackson, “Undocumented Workers Contribute Plenty, The Boston Globe,
April 12, 2006,
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/04/12/undocumented_workers_contribute_plenty/)
Undocumented
immigrants are a Burden on the Healthcare System
Federal, state and local
governments spend approximately 1.1 billion dollars annually on
healthcare costs for undocumented immigrants, aged 18-64, or
approximately $11 in taxes for each U.S. household. This compares to 88
billion dollars spent on all health care for non-elderly adults in the
U.S. in 2000. Foreign born individuals tend to use fewer health care
services because they are relatively healthier than their native born
counterparts. For example, in Los Angeles County, “total medical
spending on undocumented immigrants was $887 million in 2000 – 6 percent
of total costs, although undocumented immigrants comprise 12 percent of
the region's residents.”
(Source: The Rand Corporation,
“RAND Study Shows Relatively Little Public Money Spent Providing
Healthcare to Undocumented Immigrants,” November 14, 2006,
http://www.rand.org/news/press.06/11.14.html; Dana P. Goldman, James
P. Smith and Neeraj Sood, “Immigrants and the Cost of Medical Care,”
Health Affairs
25, no. 6 (2006): 1700-1711)
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