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Undocumented Workers and Tax Contributions – Summary by State
I detest broad claims when it comes to the contribution of migrant workers to our economy. Large-scale estimates are often based on egregious and fallacious assumptions. I have posted this previously:
I have never been one for macro-studies that pretend to take a statistic common to a particular community and multiply it to make a generalized claim. See the immigration “fuzzy math” telecasted on CBS yesterday (done by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation), where the “scholars” calculate the fiscal cost of “illegal immigrants” by estimating that the average lifetime cost of an unskilled worker–two-thirds of whom are estimated to be illegal immigrants–is $1.1 million to the American taxpayer. In this case, the end cost is reached after making assumptions ranging from “illegal immigrants” as a homogenous group of unskilled workers to how much these unskilled workers pay in taxes compared to their use of social services homogenously across America. That is certainly fuzzy logic at its best.
It is best to find and index studies based on individual states or better yet, local economies–and viola!, most reflect that undocumented workers are a net contribution to our economy. If their state-by-state footprint is less than that of an American citizen and a net benefit, than how are they an overall economic drain on society?
Btw–there was an email circulating a couple months ago that already had some states listed. If someone could track it down for me again, that would be great.
Perryman Group Study – USA will lose $1.8 trillion if undocumented migrants vanished
http://www.americansforimmigrationreform.com/files/Impact_of_the_Undo…