Suman Raghunathan

Immigrant Freeloaders No More

Last week, Nassau County legislators held a hearing to explore a key question these days: Do Latinos on have a positive or negative bottom line impact on the Long Island economy?

The resounding answer was… (drum roll, please… not just because I work for the Drum Major Institute…) they give more than they take. $614 per person per year on Long Island, to be exact. This according to a study conducted by an Adelphi University Professor and the Long Island-based Horace Hagedorn Foundation.

That may not seem like much, but multiply that small number by the nearly 330,000 (mostly immigrant) Latinos in Nassau and Suffolk Counties in 2004, and you’ve got a grand total of $202 million each year.

Wow. Now that’s a lot of cash.

As the economists say, let’s do the numbers. That $202 million annually - I just have to repeat it, it’s such a huge number - is the positive balance left in state and county accounts after immigrants (often vilified as freeloaders who greedily take advantage of public services) pay their taxes and - as only seems fair to me - access local public services such as schools and hospitals. Add to that the $5.7 billion annual impact and $145 million in sales tax receipts these Long Island Latinos – most of them immigrants – generated in Nassau and Suffolk County, and you have an even more positive economic footprint.

Come to think of it, that doesn’t sound like freeloading to me at all. That sounds like bring responsible taxpayers and residents.

As Spike Lee would say, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi did the right thing at last week’s hearing when he said, “This study deals with immigration in a constructive and positive way.” Right on, Tom, right on. Now I’m waiting to hear the same from Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, who appears to prefer terrifying immigrants with raids at dawn and demonizing their ‘underground economy’. Seems to me this ‘underground economy’ is at least partly responsible for Suffolk’s share of the $145 million in annual tax receipts, but who’s counting?

The Long Island study uses Census data to break down the economics of immigration at the local level. More importantly, the study’s findings counter popular economic arguments against immigrants and immigration.

You know the drill – or perhaps you don’t, so here goes.

According to the (flawed) conventional wisdom, immigrants drain public services at the local level, while not contributing their fair share of taxes to pay their way, so to speak. (Even though I think that way is more than paid for by the $6-$7 billion undocumented immigrants fork over each year to keep our Social Security program afloat for the Baby Boomer generation, but that’s another conversation.) Anyway, the Long Island study provides welcome proof that Latino immigrants – who are often the punching bag for those feel immigrants don’t give back enough – actually do give back. Plenty. $220 million on Long Island alone, remember?

Apart from the usual (and valid) arguments highlighting the other long-term benefits immigrants bring to local economies, such as investment and job creation (the Long Island study found Long Island Latino businesses posted nearly $2 billion in sales in 2002; the Census also estimates the nation’s 1.6 million Latino-owned firms provided jobs to 1.5 million employees and generated $222 million in 2002 alone), the Long Island study knocks out the whole ‘freeloader’ argument.

The Long Island hearing kicked off a new campaign called Long Island Wins, which aims to underline the shared interests between immigrants and the middle class on Long Island. The campaign launched last week with two commercials airing on Long Island television stations. You can check out the commercials and learn more about the campaign at www.longislandwins.com, or watch them here on YouTube.

We need more analysis of immigrants’ economic footprint at the local level, since immigrants are usually accused of draining state and local public services such as schools and health care. The Long Island study is a great start.

The study and the Long Island Wins campaign remind me just how much we have to gain from a smart legalization program that brings immigrant workers out of the shadows, gets them fair wages and workplace protections, and allows them to unionize. Apart from trivial things like human rights, imagine how a legalization program will benefit local economies. As DMI has said before, giving workers legal status will allow them to demand fair wages, bringing them out of an unregulated labor market where employers often force undocumented workers to accept substandard pay and work conditions based on their lack of status.

Once you have immigrant workers who can operate in a fair labor market, that also means they can join a union and further increase their wages. The Social Security Administration already estimates three-quarters of undocumented immigrants pay taxes, so it doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to think immigrants with legal status would do the same. Immigrants’ higher salaries will further support federal, state, and local tax bases, which in turn fund crucial public services like schools, libraries, and hospitals – which particularly benefits the both immigrants and the American middle class and those who hope to join it.

I don’t see much freeloading going on there.

Suman Raghunathan: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 7:45 AM, Jun 19, 2007 in Immigration
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