Benefits of Immigration
Pia M. Orrenius,Ana Pranger, Madeline Zavodny, and Isabel Dhillon at AEI:The current U.S. immigration surge is unprecedented. The influx flew under the radar for some time, dismissed simply as pent-up immigration from when the borders essentially closed during the pandemic. But this year’s Congressional Budget Office (CBO) budget and economic outlook brought new attention to the migrant inflow and its expected economic effects.
By incorporating previously unavailable data on migration along the southwest border into the government’s economic and fiscal outlook, the macroeconomic implications of such high levels of migration come into focus.
The labor force in 2033 will be larger by 5.2 million people, mostly because of higher net immigration, according to CBO estimates. As a result of the immigration surge, GDP will be higher by about $8.9 trillion and federal government tax revenues by $1.2 trillion over the 2024-34 period. Deficits will be lower by $900 billion.
