Diana Furchtgott-Roth Get email alerts

4 benefits of immigration reform

Published: Aug 16, 2013 6:00 a.m. ET


Commentary: Bring the best and brightest to America

Why immigration reform? That’s what people are asking their members of Congress in meetings around the country.

Here are four reasons.

Immigration increases the efficiency of the U.S. economy

Immigrants make the economy more efficient by reducing bottlenecks caused by labor shortages, both in the high- and low-skill areas. This, in turn, creates more jobs for native-born Americans. Our immigration system is bureaucratic and time consuming, and needs reform.


Immigrants are about 16% of the labor force, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, yet represent 50% of the labor force without a high school diploma. Furthermore, they represent 25% of all doctorates and 35% of doctorates in science, math, computer science and engineering.

Blind adventurer trains soldiers for South Pole race

Erik Weihenmayer was the first and only blind person to climb Mount Everest and he's now training four U.S. soldiers for the Antarctic challenge.


National Science Foundation collects statistics here.

Among native-born Americans, 91% have a high school diploma or higher, whereas only 72% of foreign-born do. Hispanic and Latino immigrants comprise 42% of the American unskilled labor force (defined as those without a high school diploma).

Low-skilled immigrants are disproportionately represented in the service, construction, and agricultural sectors, with occupations such as janitors, landscapers, tailors, plasterers, stucco masons, and farmworkers. Government, education, health, and social services are sectors that employ few immigrants.

Bureau of Labor Statistics data on labor force characteristics of foreign-born workers.

Immigration reform enables entrepreneurs to come to America

Start-ups lead to economic growth, and immigrants found new companies in America at greater rates than do the native-born. Alexander Graham Bell, Levi Strauss, Adolph Coors, and Henry Heinz were all immigrants who founded profitable new American businesses. Immigrant-founded companies employ millions of Americans. If entrepreneurs cannot come to America, they go elsewhere.

However, the share of immigrant-founded Silicon Valley companies has declined from 52% between 1995 and 2005 to 44% between 2006 and 2012. By making it difficult for high-skill workers to stay in America, Congress is dissipating the value America receives from private and taxpayers’ investments in research.

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