US survey analyses economic impact of immigration

With incoming US president Donald Trump’s immigration-policy reforms likely to affect state economies, a study by WalletHub finds that California, New Jersey and New York are in line to be impacted most deeply.

The personal finance website has analysed each of the 50 US states and the District of Columbia to determine which benefit most from immigration. The assessment ranges across 18 key metrics, ranging from “median household income of foreign-born population” to “jobs generated by immigrant-owned businesses as a share of total jobs.”

The study suggests the 10 US states with economies that benefit most from immigration are:

1. California
2. New Jersey
3. New York
4. Massachusetts
5. District of Columbia
6. Connecticut
7. Delaware
8. Washington
9. Illinois
10. Hawaii

The 10 states where immigrants have the smallest economic impact are: Montana, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Louisiana, South Dakota, Kentucky and in 51st position Mississippi.

Among the study’s other findings:

• California has the highest share of the workforce who are foreign-born at 34.12%, while West Virginia has the lowest at 1.88%.
• Maryland has the highest median household income for the foreign-born population at US$71,081, while New Mexico has the lowest at US$32,489.
• New Mexico has the highest home ownership rate for the foreign-born population (62.8%), with North Dakota the lowest (31.8%).
• California has the highest share of foreign-born residents (27.04%) and West Virginia has the lowest (1.53%).
• New Jersey has the highest share of foreign-born science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workers (41.0%) and North Dakota the lowest (2.1%).
• The District of Columbia has the highest share of foreign-born adults aged 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher (51.5%), while New Mexico has the lowest (16.4%).
• The District of Columbia has the highest share of direct and indirect jobs created by the economic contributions of international students (1.37%), with Alaska the lowest at (0.03%).

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