Migration as a Driver of Economic Growth: Increasing Productivity and Filling Labor Gaps

Abstract

Even though it is hard to put a dollar value on the contribution of immigrants to the U.S. economy, an easy way to conservatively assess this is to go up the chain from remittance outflows. International banks have put much effort in the last two decades to better measure remittances, the money migrants send to family members in their places of origin. The data on remittances challenge the notion that immigrants drain financial resources from the U.S. economy. On the contrary, they serve as a compelling indicator of the significant monetary value generated by immigrants within the country. Remittances are just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to measuring the value immigrants bring to the economy. The data on remittance flows provides a solid starting point for estimating immigrants’ significant financial contributions. It is safe to say that remittances from the U.S. represent less than 4% of the economic output that industries in the United States generate thanks to the labor of the immigrants who remit.[2] Remittances represent just a fraction of the vast value that immigrants contribute through the production of goods and services in the United States.

Keywords: immigrant contributions, GDP and migration, remittances, economic output, labor inputs