Commentary
March 28, 2006

By Tamar Jacoby

HOST INTRO: Politicians make their living second-guessing their constituents. But sometimes voters surprise them says analyst and commentator Tamar Jacoby.

JACOBY: Policymakers as different as President Bush and Senator Edward Kennedy understand that we need immigrants to do jobs that increasingly educated American workers won’t touch.

But lawmakers fear that voters won’t support higher immigration quotas. So they’ve drifted to the concept of temporary workers.

The surprise? Public opinion research shows that American voters don’t like the idea of a strictly temporary guest worker program.

If the foreigners work hard, put down roots, and invest in their communities, voters want to encourage them to stay in the U.S.

Even the most transient immigrants are good for the economy. Paradoxical as it seems, cities with lots of immigrants experience faster economic growth and less unemployment than cities without immigrants.

Immigrants keep companies that might otherwise close, growing…and growing here in the US. That keeps native-born workers employed, and it helps fill tax coffers.

The Social Security Administration estimates that every year immigrants pay in $7 billion more than they take out in benefits.

But the point is that when the newcomers put down roots, they do even more for the American bottom line.

Those who learn English do even better on the job. Longer-term residents are much more likely to buy a home – nearly four times as likely by they time they’ve been here seven to nine years.

As they move up at work, they bring home bigger paychecks. That translates into more purchasing power, more tax revenue, and higher rates of saving and investment.

No wonder Americans want immigrants to assimilate, and they want to attract more immigrants who want to stay.

A strictly temporary guest worker program may seem to make sense in the short term.

But not only does it run counter our history as a nation of immigrants. In the long run, it runs counter to the American Way of using all our talents.

©2006 Marketplace

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