Some people say that immigrants do not contribute to the economy. Some say that immigrants do not pay taxes. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Did you know?
On average, immigrants pay $539 more taxes per household than U.S.-born households (a total of $5.2 billion in state taxes in 2009)
Immigrants comprise more than one-third of California’s labor force (34 percent)
Immigrants contribute 32 percent of the state’s Gross Domestic Product, particularly in core industries such as farming, fishing, forestry and textile production.
Immigrants are more than one and a half times more likely to be self- employed.
More than half of California’s 10.3 million immigrants became homeowners after 18 years of residence in the United States.
Tom Wilson
Sources
*Looking Forward: Immigrant Contributions to the Golden State, California Immigrant Policy Center, 2, http://www.caimmigrant.org/ publications.html.
*Dowell Myers and John Pitkin, Assimilation Today: New Evidence Shows the Latest Immigrants to America are Following in Our History’s Footsteps, Center for American Progress, 6, Sept. 1, 2010, http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/09/immigration_assimilation. html.
