Mar 2, 2024 4 min read

A well-worn argument of nativists and xenophobes is that immigrants come to this country seeking only benefits, unlike “our” grandparents and great-grandparents, who found prosperity through back-breaking toil and relentless sacrifice.

There is no doubt that immigrants who came to this country in the last century and the century before endured brutally hard work and made numerous sacrifices. Walk through any cemetery in this region and there are all too many graves of people who died in their 40s or 50s, and they could have been immigrants who worked in a mine or were claimed by contagion or the foul air that was so prevalent in places like Pittsburgh.

But a recent story in The Washington Post made clear that immigrants to this country now aren’t looking to wreak havoc or live off the fat of the land. They’re looking for work and opportunities to better their lot – just like all those other immigrants did generations ago.

The Post outlined how foreign-born workers are part of the reason the U.S. economy rebounded so quickly from its moribund state in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. It pointed out that in the 12 months between January 2023 and this January, half of the labor market’s growth came from workers who were not born in the United States. Pia Orrenius, a vice president and senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, told the newspaper, “You can’t grow like this with just the native workforce. It’s not possible.”

It’s estimated that the U.S. labor force will grow by a little more than 5 million people over the next decade, and immigrants will be a portion of that. Foreign-born workers are expected to add an additional $7 million to the economy during that time.

And the idea that immigrants are taking job opportunities away from native-born Americans really doesn’t hold much water. For the last couple of years there have largely been more job openings than there have been job seekers, and employers have had to raise wages and add other incentives to get applicants through the door.

Critical industries in the United States are also fueled by immigrant labor. It’s estimated that more than 70% of the workers who pick crops on American farms are immigrants. Some are authorized and some are not. Immigrants can also be found in manufacturing, health services and many other sectors. Like those immigrants who arrived here a century ago, the work they do is hard and often thankless. Without their work, we’d likely be paying a lot more for many goods and services.

Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes, an economics professor at the Merced campus of the University of California, told The Washington Post, “More than any immigration policy per se, the biggest pull for migrants is the strength of the labor market.”

This reality should lead to a more rational debate on immigration – yes, we want people to come here legally, but how do we also put those who did not on a path to citizenship, particularly if they have been here for a long time, have been employed and productive and have no criminal record?

Discrimination and vitriol directed at immigrants is a story as old as America, even though immigrants built this country. German, Irish and Chinese immigrants were all subject to prejudice in the 1800s, and in 1924 Congress approved and President Calvin Coolidge signed a measure meant to choke off the number of Eastern European, Italian and Jewish immigrants being admitted. It may have been hysterically claimed then that immigrants were bringing pestilence and crime, but history has shown that they actually brought great benefits to this country.

The same holds true today.