By Teri Williams
Contributing Columnist
Today, we need to celebrate immigrants to counter the racist narratives that seek to divide us. We need to recognize immigrants’ vast economic contributions to the success of America.
Many of us are immigrants, children of immigrants or grandchildren of immigrants. We relate to our ancestral countries — such as Jamaica, Haiti or Barbados – while also embracing America. We consider ourselves to be Black, African American and/or Caribbean American.
Our contributions are vast. A recent data analysis issued by the American Immigration Council indicated that in 2022 immigrant households paid nearly one in every six tax dollars collected by federal, state and local governments, helping fund a wide range of social services from public schools to food stamp programs and health care insurance for low-income families.
Immigrant households paid $579.1 billion in total taxes; that includes $35.1 billion in taxes paid by undocumented households. As summarized by a recent Forbes article “New Report Details the Huge Contribution Immigrants Are Making to America,” 13.6% of the nation’s residents are foreign-born, accounting for 22.2% of entrepreneurs, 22.8% of workers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics; and 15.2% of nurses.
As workers, business owners, taxpayers, and neighbors, immigrants are an integral part of the country’s diverse and thriving communities and make extensive contributions that benefit all. A 2017 paper by Evans and Fitzgerald, “The Economic and Social Outcomes of Refugees in the United States: Evidence from the ACS” found that immigrants pay $21,000 more in taxes than we receive in benefits over our first 20 years in the U.S.
Immigrants are linked to greater economic growth. According to a recent report, the Importance of Growth in the Foreign-Born Population to U.S. Economic Growth, by the National Foundation for American Policy, the slower growth in immigration between 2016 and 2022 acted as a brake on U.S. economic growth and reduced the growth rate of real U.S. gross domestic product by up to 40%. In other words, fewer immigrants result in slower economic growth in America. The sizable adverse effect is because immigrants have been a critical source of growth in the U.S. labor force in recent years.
So why the current negative press about immigration? In one word, racism.
Barriers to immigration come not only in legal form; political barriers to immigration can also be very powerful. The recent fictional stories about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Ohio is just a current form of racism.
Yet immigrants persevere. We leave everything familiar to us: our family, friends, support network and culture. Immigrants also liquidate assets to incur the expense of moving.
When we arrive in America, there are often many uncertainties including finding work, where to live, new laws including banking, new cultural norms, languages or accent issues, transportation, racism on a level not experienced in our home countries, and other exclusionary behavior towards us and our families.
Yet, immigrants overcome cultural differences and achieve economic success over time, especially in environments that are open to diversity and ready to accept our talents.
According to Nan Wu, director of research at the American Immigration Council, “Immigrants are essential workers who make incredible contributions to our country and our economy. We need policies that recognize that, and that means offering solutions for communities that have long been settled here but have no pathway towards legal status, and it means recognizing immigrants’ potential in growing industries from agriculture to tech.”
So it’s important to have a positive and accurate counter-narrative to the current negative inaccurate stories about immigrants and showcase their incredible talents of perseverance and hard work.
Yes, we are here. Yes, we are successful. And yes, we are an important ingredient to America’s success.
Teri Williams is the president and chief operating officer of One United Bank, the largest Black-owned bank in the United States.
