No, Low-Skilled Immigrants Don’t Cost Taxpayers Money
According to new research, even less skilled migrants to the US have a net fiscal benefit of about $750 each.
Immigration is a net plus for government coffers.
Photographer: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg
It’s not often that Paul Krugman and Donald Trump agree. But the Nobel-prize-winning economist and former (and future?) president have both subscribed to the mainstream consensus that, in the short run, less skilled immigrants are a burden on public finances. They may receive government benefits, including health care, yet they are not always ready to contribute to the economy productively.
Now that consensus is in question. According to new research from economists at the University of Oregon the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, new low-skilled immigrants to the US are a net fiscal plus — each adding an estimated $750 a year to government coffers at the federal, state and local levels. And their contribution to the entire economy is likely larger still.