Andrew Friedman

Another Immigration Myth Debunked

The effort to create a narrative about immigration that vilifies immigrants has been relentless.

It has been said that immigrants come to our communities and make them more dangerous. In fact, a study of Harvard demonstrated that immigrants commit fewer crimes, and fewer violent crimes than than do native born Americans. So, in fact, communities with a higher percentage of immigrants are safer than other comunities.

It has been said that imigrants are stealing jobs and driving down wages. In fact, a recent cover story in the New York Times magazine indicated the opposite. The evidence suggests that immigrants benefit the economy by creating new markets, drastically increasing consumption, starting businesses and buying homes. The evidence of any downard pull on wages is weak at best.

The anti-immigrant crowd has also made it a mantra that immigrants are crowding our emergency rooms, and driving the cost of health care sky high. A comprehensive new study by the Journal Health Affairs entitled

What Accounts For Differences In The Use Of Hospital Emergency Departments Across U.S. Communities?

The evidence, once again, suggests the opposite. Communities with more immigrants have lower emergency room use. This makes sense, because the study showed that noncitizens use the emergency room significantly less frequently than do native-born Americans. As it turns out, the main thing that drives up emergency room use is limited capacity to provide outpatient care. That makes sense. The longer it takes to get a regular medical appointment, the more likely it is is that a patient will seek care at the emergency room.

Let's see if Tancedo, Sensenbrenner and King start advocating for increased funding for hospitals and public health. If not, it should be clear that their anti-immigrant crusade is not really motivated by what they say it is motivated by.

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Posted at 8:29 AM, Jul 31, 2006 in Health Care
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