Immigrants Contribute Greatly to U.S. Economy, Despite Administration’s “Public Charge” Rule Rationale
The DHS has finalized a rule barring applications for permanent residency from immigrants who have received or may receive public benefits like SNAP and Medicaid. According to the authors of this paper, this new rule will grossly harm a key segment of the US workforce: both disincentivizing immigrants currently in the US from using these services, leading to potentially severe health consequences, and also limiting new arrivals of lower educated immigrants whose labor is vital to the US economy. Lower educated immigrants are more geographically mobile, and have proven essential to fill employment gaps in many industries. Immigrants without a college degree, for example, make up over 1/3 of the farming, fishing, building, cleaning and maintenance occupations in the US. The rule also assumes that immigrants receiving these benefits are not working or contributing economically, but over 75 percent of immigrants receiving benefits either worked during the year or were married to a worker in a low-wage job. Cutting off this population from the US workforce would result in steep declines in net workforce growth in coming years, with negative effects on overall economic growth and stability. The authors contend that the new “public charge” rule is not evidence-based or economically sound and should be abandoned to ensure a stable, healthy workforce in the US. (Julianne Weis, Ph.D)
Sherman, A., Trisi, D., Stone, C., Gonzales, S., & Parrott, S. (2019). Immigrants contribute greatly to U.S. economy, despite administration’s “public charge” rule rationale. Retrieved from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities website: https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/immigrants-contribute-greatly-to-us-economy-despite-administrations