Social scientists and analysts often We agree on immigration — both documented and undocumented — stimulates economic growth. However, it is almost impossible to directly calculate how much immigrants contribute to the economy. This is because we do not know the earnings of every immigrant worker in the United States.

But we do have a good idea of ​​how much money they’re sending back to their home countries — More than $81 billion According to the World Bank, in 2022. And we can use this figure indirectly to calculate the total economic value of immigrant labor in the United States.

Economic contributions are probably underestimated

I ran it A. to work together with researchers Center for Latin American and Latino Studies And Immigration Laboratory at American University to measure how much immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy based on the money they remit or repatriate.

Various studies state this Remittances constitute 17.5% of immigrants’ income.

With this in mind, we estimate take-home wages for returning immigrants in 2022 to be over $466 billion. Assuming that their take-home pay is approximately 21% of the economic value they produce for the businesses they work for (such as those working similar entry-level jobs in restaurants and construction), immigrants added $2.2 trillion to total income. US economy per year.

That’s about 8% of the United States’ gross domestic product and close to Canada’s entire GDP in 2022 — ninth largest economy in the world.

Immigration strengthens the USA

Beyond its value, this figure tells us something important about immigrant labor: The primary beneficiaries of immigrant labor are the U.S. economy and society.

The $81 billion that immigrants sent home in 2022 is a very small fraction of their total economic value of $2.2 trillion. The vast majority (96%) of immigrant wages and productivity remained in the United States.

Remittances from the United States represent a significant source of income for the people who buy them. But they do not represent the siphoning of the US dollar as Trump implies. called remittances “welfare” for people in other countries and recommended We pay them taxes to build the border wall.

The economic contributions of U.S. immigrants will likely be much more significant than we estimate.

First, the World Bank’s estimate of remittances is likely an underestimate because many migrants send money abroad. people traveling to their home countries.

In previous researchMy colleagues and I also found that some immigrant groups are less likely to return than others.

One of them is white-collar professionals; for example, immigrants with careers in banking, science, technology and education. Unlike many undocumented immigrantsWhite-collar professionals often have visas that allow them to bring their families with them, so they don’t need to send money abroad to cover housing expenses in their home country.

Immigrants who have worked in the country for decades and have more family in the country also tend to send less money.

Both of these groups have higher earnings, and their private contributions are not included in our $2.2 trillion estimate.

Additionally, our estimates do not account for the economic growth that immigrants stimulate by spending money in the United States, creating demand, creating jobs, and creating jobs. start a business which hires immigrants and locals.

For example, we calculate: Contributions of Salvadoran immigrants and their children alone added nearly $223 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023. This is about 1% of the country’s entire GDP.

Considering the US economy grew by about 2% In 2022 and 2023, this is a significant amount.

These figures are a reminder that the financial success of the United States depends on immigrants and their labor.

Ernesto Castaneda a professor American University.

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