Let’s Make America Great Again!
If you have been reading these columns you’ll know how just now how good things are in the United States. The economy has taken off, and if it keeps going at this rate it will head out into space!
So I was thinking about what it is that makes America great? Or, more particularly, have been looking at the history of that great nation and what has made it great.
As far as I can see it’s the people who live in those 50 States. The vast majority are descendants of immigrants. Leaving aside the issue of the Native American and their tragic history, what is left is largely a history of mostly European settlers heading across the seas looking for a new life for their families.
Of course, many found a life so much better than the one they experienced in Europe. Just take the tens of thousands of German speakers who fled the increasingly authoritarian German States in the mid- nineteen century, accompanied by many fleeing the stultifying world of the Austro- Hungarian Empire. Texas is full of their monuments, many profane, some sacred, to this journey and the lives and communities that were created out of it.
That journey for many continues today, as it did in the 1850s, and not just from central Europe but from all across that continent and much further afield. The immigrant contribution to the USA may be ingrained in the country’s cultural DNA but what many Americans don’t realize is that the spark that caused those journeys is still part of our European DNA ,whether it be on Ireland’s wild west coasts or the dark fjord’s of Scandinavia, the sun scorched fields of Sicily or the rolling hills of Bavaria – the dream is the same as it was 200 years earlier.
And that dream still has a name: America.
There are a lot of negative myths about immigration to the US. Sure there are some who come with nothing but a desire to abuse a system. But I suspect few of them read this blog. The type of immigrants, prospective or real, that do read it are in a different category. They are successful entrepreneurs who want to take matters to the next stage often. That stage is the USA and for that they call on the aid of Mount Bonnell Advisors.
So it is worth looking at some recently released figures about the real immigrants to the US – the vast majority.
The New American Economy, a bipartisan immigration research and advocacy group founded by former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg, came up with some interesting figures on just how much the average immigrant to the US is contributing each year to Uncle Sam’s tax yield.
Immigrant households earned $1.5 trillion in total income and paid $405 billion in taxes in 2017
DACA-eligible residents earned $23.4 billion and paid $2.2 billion in federal taxes, and nearly $1.8 billion in state and local taxes
Immigrants with temporary protected status paid over $891 million in federal taxes and another $654 million in state and local taxes.
Undocumented immigrants—who have more than $200 billion in total spending power—paid $27.2 billion in federal, state, and local taxes.
The report went further by calculating the net economic benefit of immigrants to individual states. This comes to more than $12 billion in Texas alone.
Food for thought.
But, just last week the New American Economy released even more surprising data.
Key findings include:
Immigrants contribute to the stability of cities. From 2014 to 2017, immigrants contributed to nearly 33% of the total population growth in the top 100 metropolitan areas. Immigrants helped reverse population decline in several metro areas including: Detroit, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Albany, Baltimore, Memphis, and Dayton. Immigrants were responsible for 98% of the population growth in metro Cincinnati, 88% of the growth in metro Birmingham, and 87% of growth in metro Miami.
Immigrants are an economic driver for some of America’s largest and most vibrant cities. The top three metro areas by total taxes paid and spending power were New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Immigrants paid $69.2 billion in taxes and had $162.3 billion in spending power in the New York metro area alone. In Los Angeles, immigrants paid $38.2 billion taxes and had $108.6 billion in spending power. In San Francisco, immigrants contributed $22.1 billion in taxes and $51.9 billion in spending power.
Immigrants are raising city housing market values from Charlotte to Nashville. The top three metro areas with the fastest growing number of immigrant homeowners were: Nashville metro area, Oklahoma City, and Charlotte, NC. The total number of immigrant homeowners rose from 7.3 million to 8 million, an increase of 9.5% between 2014 and 2017. 22 metro areas saw the number of immigrant homeowners increase by more than 10,000 in just those three years.
U.S. cities’ healthcare needs are increasing and immigrants are helping to fill the gap. 98 of the top 100 metros saw an increase in their population above the age of 65. As healthcare demands grow, immigrants are helping to provide much needed services. In metro El Paso, immigrant workers represented one in three healthcare workers in 2017. Close to 20% of healthcare workers were immigrants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. In the Baltimore metro area, immigrants were over 16% of healthcare workers.
All interesting, I think you’ll agree, but for our purposes there was some even more interesting data around immigrant entrepreneurs. Listen to what the New American Economy had to say on this:
Immigrants are serving as critical job creators in cities across America. Between 2014 and 2017, the number of immigrant entrepreneurs grew by 7.7% across the top 100 metro areas, from 2.6 million to 2.8 million. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the number of immigrant entrepreneurs more than doubled; in Tulsa, Oklahoma, immigrant entrepreneurs grew by more than 60%; in Kansas City, Richmond, and El Paso, they grew by more than 50%. The top three metro areas with the fastest growing number of immigrant homeowners were the Nashville metro area, Oklahoma City, and Charlotte, NC.
My friends as we at Mount Bonnell Advisors have known for some time the immigrant dream of America is still alive.
These figures tell us so. They also tell us that of the immigrants who do arrive, they come to work and to create. Mount Bonnell Advisors and our clients have a lot in common with such people.
These figures are indeed food for thought.
