US immigration reform would boost economy says new study
January 08 2010 by Liam Clifford
Study highlights the benefit immigrants bring to the United States and the added benefit US immigration reform would have.
According
to a new study by a UCLA associate professor, legalising the status of 12
million unregistered immigrants living in the US would help to boost the US
economy.
The study’s author, Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda, says that US
immigration reform would even help boost wages for US-born citizens. He
explained to reporters yesterday, "immigration has a positive effect on the
economy.” He added that legalising immigrants already living in the US would
generate $1.15 trillion in GDP over the next ten years.
The study is
referring to the comprehensive US immigration reform proposed by President Obama,
which would see a path to citizenship being created for the millions of people
living in the US illegally. Many of these people moved to the US years ago and
have been working in the US for some time – their children are likely to be
attending the local schools, but they are still officially illegal
immigrants.
Supporters of the study claim that measures introduced to try
to curb illegal immigration have been costly failures. It is agreed on a
widespread basis that removing the illegal immigrants in the US would be far too
expensive to be a practical option.
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