Immigrants Drive America’s Progress
Immigrants drive the U.S. economy; they contribute some two trillion dollars to the annual GDP; they perform essential jobs and have created 45% of Fortune 500 companies. Nothing to do with the discourse of fear and hatred of Donald Trump and his Republican Party, which has elected him candidate for the country’s presidency.At the Republican Party Convention last July, xenophobia, racism and White supremacism dominated the ultraconservative discourse of Donald Trump, who went so far as to say, among other lies and barbarities, that the migratory flows during Joe Biden’s term in office is “an invasion that kills hundreds of people a year” and promised that “I will close borders” if he returns to the presidency of the United States.
“It’s hate speech,” Óscar Chacón, founder and executive director of Alianza Américas, tells Sol de Medianoche, who believes that, with Trump’s dialectics being much worse and more worrisome than Biden’s, on immigration issues their two presidencies “have not been very different.” Chacón advocates seeking non-punitive measures to control the flow of Latin Americans to the United States. Statistics show that the reality of this country has nothing to do with Trump’s dialectic of fear and hatred, against which the authorities do not intervene, even though it is classified as a serious crime in our constitutional order. Immigrants are one of the most important (if not the most important) driving forces of the U.S. economy. They contribute some $2 trillion to the annual GDP; they fill essential jobs in a variety of sectors, such as health care, agriculture and technology; they make up 17% of the civilian labor force; and they are entrepreneurs who have founded 45% of the Fortune 500, Fortune magazine’s annual list of the 500 largest U.S. companies open to investors. This entrepreneurial spirit has a “ripple effect,” creating millions of jobs and spurring economic growth throughout the United States. Immigrant households have $1.3 trillion in purchasing power and Latinos alone contribute $1 trillion. Fifty-one percent of immigrants own their own homes, which contributes significantly to the housing market. There are 23 million eligible immigrant voters, and they pay $580 billion in taxes. U.S. Latinos make up the fifth largest economy in the world ($3.2 trillion), ahead of such powerhouses as India, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Canada, according to a report last year by the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture (CESLAC) and the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting (CERF), based at California Lutheran University (UCLA). If Hispanics in North America were to form an independent country, they would have had the fastest growing economy between 2010 and 2021, surpassing even the United States and trailing only China and India. If we stick to Alaska, “immigrants represent approximately 7.5% of its population and contribute significantly to sectors such as fishing, tourism and health care, which are fundamental to the state’s economy,” Ramiro Cavazos, president of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) and a descendant of Hispanics, tells Sol de Medianoche. Ramiro Cavazos has spent more than three decades promoting Latino-owned businesses across the country. “Many immigrants in Alaska are entrepreneurs who play a key role in the state’s small business landscape,” says Cavazos. “Their presence is essential to supporting small businesses and maintaining the vitality of local communities. Immigrants have had a lasting impact on Alaska’s economy and culture.” Some 46 million immigrants reside in the United States, representing about 14% of the total population. They come from a wide range of countries, primarily Mexico (24%), India (6%), China (5%), the Philippines (4%) and El Salvador (3%). The Latino population is a crucial component. Of the 46 million immigrants, more than 19 million are from Latin America, representing more than 40% of the total immigrant population. This demographic group is particularly significant in states such as California, Texas, Florida and New York, where Latino immigrants contribute substantially to local economies and workforce diversity. |