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Other studies that have used a more dynamic approach to analyzing the impact of increased immigration suggest that immigration reform is one of the most promising way to speed economic growth. Most consequentially, the study ignores the fact that comprehensive immigration reform would have the net effect of greatly increasing economic growth. The second, and even bigger, problem with the Heritage analysis is that it does not take into account how the proposed immigration law, currently being reviewed in Congress, would affect other economic variables. They strive to make better lives for themselves and their families, and in so doing contribute more and more to our country and economy. Clearly, immigrants are not static beings. However, only 13.1% of immigrants who had arrived in the U.S. For example, 19.6% of all immigrants lived in poverty in 2011. That is to say, it does not account for the fact that immigrants tend to move up the economic ladder the longer they have been in country. The problem with this approach is that it assumes that immigrants are static. Both have to do with the static nature of the study’s approach.įirst, the Heritage researchers use the current rates at which undocumented immigrants report using government benefit programs to estimate the rates at which this same cohort of immigrants will use such programs in the future. ) Rather than re-hash these same criticisms, I’ll focus on the two major problems with the Heritage study that I find most significant. (Especially insightful analyses are available here and here. Others have pointed out several problems that have a net effect of substantially inflating the $6.3 million fiscal cost estimate. No matter how careful an economic analysis is conducted, there is always room to quibble over any number of the study’s assumptions or details. This is an alarming figure, but one that suffers from a number of methodological problems that render it too pessimistic and ultimately unhelpful in answering the question of how immigration reform would affect economic growth.Įstimating the likely effects of any public policy can be quite difficult for even the most experienced researchers. A report released this week by the Heritage Foundation claims that the fiscal costs associated with legalizing the 11.5 million immigrants currently living in the U.S.