Fiscal Impact of Refugees and Asylees

Many posts have discussed immigration and asylum.

Ghertner, R., S. Macartney, and M. Dost. The Fiscal Impact of Refugees and Asylees at the Federal, State,

and Local Levels from 2005 to 2019. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S.

Department of Health & Human Services. February 2024

Between 1990 and 2022, the United States welcomed over 2.1 million refugees and accepted over 800,000 asylees. While the purpose of granting visas to refugees and asylees is humanitarian, they do impact the United States economically. This analysis estimates the fiscal impact of refugees and asylees on federal, state, and local governments from 2005 to 2019.

Key Points

• The net fiscal impact of refugees and asylees was positive over the 15-year period, at $123.8 billion. This means that refugees and asylees contributed more revenue than they cost in expenditures to the government. The net fiscal benefit to the federal government was estimated at $31.5 billion, and the net fiscal benefit to state and local governments was estimated at $92.3 billion.
• Governmental expenditures on refugees and asylees totaled an estimated $457.2 billion over the 15-year period. Expenditures by the federal government represented 72.5 percent of the total, at $331.5 billion. State and local government expenditures were 27.5 percent of the total, at $125.7 billion.
• Refugees and asylees contributed an estimated $581 billion in revenue to federal, state and local governments. They contributed an estimated $363 billion to the federal government through payroll, income, and excise taxes, and $218 billion to state and local governments, through income, sales, and property taxes.
• Including refugees and asylees and their spouses and children under age 18, most of whom are U.S. citizens, expenditures totaled $723.4 billion. Refugees, asylees, and their immediate families contributed an estimated $739.4 billion in revenue to all levels of government.
• When compared with the total U.S. population on a per capita basis, refugees and asylees had a comparable net fiscal impact.

Ke Huy Quan

Previous posts have noted how much Vietnamese refugees have contributed to the United States.

Ke Huy Quan's  acceptance speech  for best actor in a supporting role for his performance in "Everything Everywhere All at Once."

Thank you. Thank you. My mom is 84 years old and she's at home watching. Mom, I just won an Oscar! My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp. And somehow, I ended up here on Hollywood's biggest stage. They say stories like these only happen in the movies. I cannot believe it's happening to me. This– this is the American dream. Thank you so much.

...

I owe everything to the love of my life, my wife, Echo, who month after month, year after year for 20 years, told me that one day my time will come. Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To all of you out there, please keep your dreams alive. Thank you, thank you so much for welcoming me back. I love you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Most Refugees to the US Are Christian

Refugees and Evangelicals

 Philip Bump at WP:

In February 2017, as debate raged nationally over President Trump’s decision to curtail immigration to the United States, the conservative Christian Broadcasting Network dipped into the Bible to share what that sacred text said about refugees.

“Treat refugees the way you want to be treated,” it said, quoting Leviticus. “Invite the stranger in” (Matthew) and “Open your door to the traveler” (Job).

The first comment in reply to the article captures the tone of the rest of the feedback the site received: “Shame on CBN for this very poorly written article full of political rhetoric. This is not a Biblical issue.”

At the time, polling from Pew Research Center showed that about 56 percent of Americans believed that the United States had a responsibility to welcome refugees into the country. In the year since, that figure has dropped and is now at a bare majority, 51 percent.

But Pew’s new research includes a fascinating detail: No group agrees less with the idea that the United States has a responsibility to accept refugees than white evangelical Protestants.

Pew reports on attitudes toward refugees:


David Greene & Frank Newport at Gallup:

Americans rarely agree as overwhelmingly as they did in November 1938. Just two weeks after Nazi Germany coordinated a brutal nationwide attack against Jews within its own borders -- an event known as "Kristallnacht" -- Gallup asked Americans: "Do you approve or disapprove of the Nazi treatment of Jews in Germany?" Nearly everyone who responded -- 94% -- indicated that they disapproved.

Yet, even though nearly all Americans condemned the Nazi regime's terror against Jews in November 1938, that very same week, 72% of Americans said "No" when Gallup asked: "Should we allow a larger number of Jewish exiles from Germany to come to the United States to live?" Just 21% said "Yes."

Why this yawning gap between disapproval of the Nazi regime's persecutions and a willingness to aid refugees? Gallup polling on these topics during the Nazi era helps answer this question, providing important context for understanding Americans' responses to the threat of Nazism.

Americans' widespread disapproval of the Nazi regime's treatment of Jews could not necessarily be assumed in 1938, given evidence that the U.S. was not immune from its own xenophobia and discrimination.

Prejudice against Jews in the U.S. was evident in a number of ways in the 1930s. According to historian Leonard Dinnerstein, more than 100 new anti-Semitic organizations were founded in the U.S. between 1933 and 1941. One of the most influential, Father Charles Coughlin's National Union for Social Justice, spread Nazi propaganda and accused all Jews of being communists. Coughlin broadcast anti-Jewish ideas to millions of radio listeners, asking them to "pledge" with him to "restore America to the Americans."

Closing the Door to Refugees

Public Opinion on Immigration

Karlyn Bowman, Eleanor O'Neil, Heather Sims write at AEI:

• The ban: Hypothetical questions asked in the fall of 2016 and early this year about temporary or permanent bans on immigrants from areas with a history of terrorism produced mixed results. In most surveys that asked whether Muslims who were not US citizens should be banned from entering the US, a majority of Americans were opposed.
• Syrian refugees: Historically, Americans have generally been unwelcoming toward refugees. In the current context, question wording matters: In October 2016, 54 percent said the United States did not have a responsibility to accept refugees from Syria (Pew Research Center), but in September, 61 percent said we should allow Syrian refugees who want to come to America to do so “as long as they go through a security clearance process” (CBS News).
• The wall: Polls conducted after the November election showed around four in 10 supported building a wall along the border with Mexico; 55 percent to 60 percent opposed doing so. Around three-quarters didn’t believe Mexico will pay for a wall (Quinnipiac University, CBS News, ABC News/Washington Post).
• Unauthorized immigrants: In January, 59 percent of registered voters said illegal immigrants currently living in the United States should be allowed to stay and eventually apply for citizenship, and 9 percent thought they should be allowed to stay but not be allowed to apply for citizenship. Twenty-five percent said they should be required to leave the country (Quinnipiac University). Sixty-five percent in an October 2016 CBS News poll said illegal immigrants coming to this country today mostly take jobs Americans don’t want; 25 percent said they take jobs away from American citizens.
• Immigration overall: The first time Pew Research Center asked people about immigrants’ effect on the country in 1994, 63 percent said immigrants were “a burden on our country because they take our jobs, housing, and health care.” In December 2016, an identical percentage gave the opposite response, saying “immigrants today strengthen our country because of their hard work and talents.” Although feelings have grown more positive, Americans remain divided on what the proper level of immigration should be. In the Gallup Organization’s latest poll from 2016, 38 percent said it should be decreased, while the same percentage said it should be kept at its present level. Twenty-one percent said it should be increased.

Trump Is Factually Wrong on Refugees

AP reports:

TRUMP: "We are taking in thousands of people into our country. We have no idea where they come from, we have no idea who the hell they are. We know they believe in certain things that we don't want to believe in."

THE FACTS: It's not true that the government knows nothing about refugees who come to the United States.

The State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration keeps detailed records about how many refugees arrive monthly, and from where. The information is available to the public online through the agency's Refugee Processing Center (www.wrapsnet.org). The arrival information is broken down by country and region.

In May, for example, 6,511 refugees were resettled in the United States. The Democratic Republic of the Congo had the largest number of refugees who arrived last month, 1,274.
Annual data about immigrants is also available from the government through the Homeland Security Department's Yearbook of Immigration Statistics.

Would-be immigrants and refugees are screened to ensure they haven't been identified by intelligence agencies or law enforcement as having ties to terrorist organizations or criminal records. But people's belief systems are not generally considered as part of their applications to move to the United States

Nonattitudes and Agrabah: The Flip Side

A number of posts have discussed nonattitudes.

Judy Kurtz reports at The Hill:

Forty-four percent of Democratic voters say they would support accepting refugees from Agrabah, the fictional country in Disney’s “Aladdin,” a new poll finds.

The survey by WPA Research comes in response to a survey last week from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling that found 30 percent of Republican primary voters — including 45 percent of Donald Trump supporters — want to bomb Agrabah.

Attitudes Toward Refugees

Historically, Americans have been skeptical about accepting refugees.  Below, Gallup supplies data going back to the 1930s.

Americans did welcome the Vietnamese boat people  One exception was California Governor Jerry Brown, as Kerry Picket reported last year:

In 1975, Jerry Brown complained, that the federal government wanted to “dump Vietnamese on” California. “We can’t be looking 5,000 miles away and at the same time neglecting people who live here,” Newsweek reported at the time. According to The Washington Post, Larry Engelmann’s Tears Before the Rain: An Oral History of the Fall of South Vietnam, writes that Julia Vadala Taft, who led the interagency task force for refugee resettlement, remembered Brown’s opposition.

“The new governor of California, Jerry Brown, was very concerned about refugees settling in his state. Brown even attempted to prevent planes carrying refugees from landing at Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento. . . . The secretary of health and welfare, Mario Obledo, felt that this addition of a large minority group would be unwelcome in California. And he said that they already had a large population of Hispanics, Filipinos, blacks, and other minorities.”