Migration

Immigrants and Local Economic Growth: Realizing New York’s Full Potential

May 22, 2014. How can lifting barriers to economic advancement to immigrants also provide a boost to the New York State economy? In November, 2013, the Fiscal Policy Institute convened a multi-day retreat to discuss this question. Advocates, organizers, service providers, researchers, and people working in policy development joined FPI at the Blue Mountain Center in the Adirondacks for a series of highly engaging conversations. It was a rare and warmly welcomed instance of people coming together to discuss these questions from Long Island, New [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:25-05:00May 22nd, 2014|Economic Trends & Policy, Migration, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

Arizona Law on Immigration Spooks Business Leaders-FPI in Huffington Post

April 16, 2014. FPI's David Dyssegaard Kallick wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post, reporting on how Arizona business leaders see the economic impacts of the state's "Show Me Your Papers" law. It may be hard to statistically measure the economic impact of the bill, widely perceived as anti-immigrant, argues Kallick. But a good gauge of the damage done is how serious the state's business leaders have been about efforts to turn the anti-immigrant perception around. And, Kallick says, falling behind the curve on the [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:25-05:00April 16th, 2014|Letters, Migration|

Insulting a Poem, and our Heritage (A Daily News Op-Ed)

July 14, 2013. In an op-ed for the Daily News, by David Dyssegaard Kallick takes on the ways Emma Lazarus's famous poem ("give me your tired, your poor...") has distorted in recent media stories about immigration, and brings the debate back to America's roots. “Give me your tired, your poor . . . If there’s room after more Ph.D.s,” is the headline from a recent article in TechCrunch, which goes on to explain Congress’ “awe-inspiring consensus over its support for high-skilled immigrants.” What we really [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:29-05:00July 14th, 2013|Letters, Migration|

New Report Models Immigration Reform’s Effect on State and Local Taxes

July 10, 2013. This morning, the Institute on Economic and Tax Policy (ITEP) released a report that estimates that unauthorized immigrants currently pay $744 million in state and local taxes in New York State, a number that would increase to $968 million if these same immigrants were granted legal status. The share of family income paid in state and local taxes would increase from 7.1 percent to 8.4 percent. In this new report, ITEP takes an analysis it first did for the Fiscal Policy Institute’s [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:29-05:00July 10th, 2013|Blog, Migration|

For True Immigration Reform, Hire Labor Inspectors, Not Border Guards (A Newsday Op-Ed)

June 27, 2013. A Newsday op-ed by David Dyssegaard Kallick stresses the need for labor standards enforcement as part of comprehensive immigration reform. Paying people off the books is, of course, illegal. But does it happen? We know it does. The good news is that there's no great mystery about how to stop it. Labor departments -- at the state and federal level -- are responsible for enforcing workplace standards. They are the ones who can ensure that employers are paying employees on the books, [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:30-05:00June 28th, 2013|Letters, Migration|

Immigration Reform Would Improve Economic Productivity

June 4, 2013. A new report from the Fiscal Policy Institute shows that legalizing undocumented immigrants, paired with labor standards enforcement, would boost economic productivity. Reform would remove barriers to advancement for newly legalized immigrants, create a level playing field for businesses, and align our systems of taxation, social services, and social insurance so that they would function as they are supposed to. “Immigration reform, done right, would be good for immigrants, but it would also be good for all Americans,” said David Dyssegaard Kallick, [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:52-05:00June 12th, 2013|Migration, Must Read, Press Releases, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

Data for Pre-Citizen Voting Debate in City Council

May 9, 2013. Should legal immigrants who are not yet citizens be permitted to vote in New York City elections? The NYC City Council will debate this question beginning on Thursday, May 9, in connection with Intro 410, which would allow pre-citizens to vote in New York City municipal elections. It wouldn’t be the first time noncitizens could vote in New York elections. School board elections, before they were abolished, were open to all parents of children in New York City schools, regardless of citizenship [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:53-05:00May 9th, 2013|Blog, Migration|

NYS DREAM Legislation: A Strong Return on Investment

February 27, 2013. A proposal is gaining ground in New York State that would allow all students—including those who are undocumented immigrants—equal access to the state's Tuition Assistance Program. Last year, the Fiscal Policy Institute published an analysis of the costs and benefits of the proposal. This new report digs deeper into the fiscal and economic benefits to New York State, and shows that if the proposal were financed through the income tax the cost to a typical taxpayer would be 87¢, the price of [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:57-05:00February 27th, 2013|Migration, Must Read, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

Op-ed: States lead the way on immigration reform

February 24, 2013. This op-ed piece by David Dyssegaard Kallick of FPI and Tanya Broder of the National Immigration Law Council ran in the Kansas City Star, the Denver Post, the Bradenton (Florida) Herald, the Anchorage Daily News, and other local papers around the country.

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:27:57-05:00February 24th, 2013|Blog, Letters, Migration|

FPI’s immigration research cited: The White House Blog

July 12, 2012. Blogging from the White House, Jason Furman and Danielle Gray of the National Economic Council mention FPI's June 2012 report on immigrant small business owners in their post Ten Ways Immigrants Help Build and Strengthen Our Economy. America is a nation of immigrants. Our American journey and our success would simply not be possible without the generations of immigrants who have come to our shores from every corner of the globe. It is helpful to take a moment to reflect on the [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:28:16-05:00July 12th, 2012|Blog, Migration, Must Read|

Immigrant Small Business Owners: A Significant and Growing Part of the Economy

June 14, 2012. More than one in six small business owners in the United States is an immigrant, according to a new report from FPI's Immigration Research Initiative. Immigrants - people born in another country - make up 18 percent of all small business owners in the United States. By contrast, immigrants are 13 percent of the population and 16 percent of the labor force, according to the American Community Survey from 2010. That's a big change from 20 years ago, when immigrants made up [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:28:18-05:00June 14th, 2012|Migration, Must Read, Press Releases, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

Testimony on the importance of libraries to integrating immigrants

April 16, 2012. Before a New York City Council hearing about the impact of Mayor Bloomberg's proposed budget cuts to libraries, FPI's David Dyssegaard Kallick stressed the important role libraries play in helping to integrate immigrants into the social and economic fabric of New York City. Testimony >>

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:28:20-05:00April 16th, 2012|Migration, Testimony|

The New York State DREAM Act: A preliminary estimate of costs and benefits

March 9, 2012. The New York State DREAM Act would open the state's Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) to all students who meet the funding criteria, irrespective of their immigration status. What would be the costs and benefits of this proposal? This brief is the latest release from FPI's Immigration Research Initiative.

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:28:20-05:00March 9th, 2012|Migration, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|

Testimony on “DREAM Act” Legislation

December 9, 2011. FPI's David Dyssegaard Kallick was invited to deliver testimony before a joint hearing convened by the New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Governmental Operations and Standing Committee on Higher Education. He testified that going to college allows immigrants - even undocumented immigrants - to improve their employment opportunities, thereby boosting their contribution to the economy and to tax revenues. "Their success is also our success," Kallick noted.

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:28:22-05:00December 9th, 2011|Migration, Testimony|

New Americans on Long Island: A Vital Sixth of the Economy

October 27, 2011. Immigrants - documented and undocumented combined - make up 16 percent of the population of Long Island, and account for 17 percent of total economic output. This report presents data on jobs, earnings, family income, taxes, and home ownership. Immigrants' economic role is examined town by town and in a national context as well. Among the 50 most affluent suburban counties in the country, Nassau and Suffolk are neither at the top nor the bottom of any of several measures of immigration. [...]

Fiscal Policy Institute2024-12-18T12:28:23-05:00October 27th, 2011|Migration, Press Releases, Reports, Briefs and Presentations|