Hispanic Immigrants Add Billions to Carolina Economy

Radley Balko notes “A new study from North Carolina shows that Hispanics add some $9.2 billion to the Tarheel economy, while costing the state just $61 million in schools, roads, hospitals, and prisons. That’s a pretty massive surplus.”

Indeed.

There are good reasons why one might oppose a large influx of non-English speaking immigrants from the developing world, let alone enforce our immigration laws. That they are a massive drain to the economy, however, is not among them.

FILED UNDER: Economics and Business, Latin America, ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Jonk says:

    Great for the Tarheels…it’s a different story in the Northeast.

  2. Bithead says:

    Your post, James, seems to lack some qualification.

    You say…”That they are a massive drain to the economy, however, is not among them.”

    Well, how, then, do we know this? For example; Do we have any statistics that the jobs being performed by the influx of Hispanics, would not bring in more money if done by non-immigrant workers?

  3. caltechgirl says:

    yep. and in CA

  4. Ginifer says:

    North Carolina might be the exception, but in other states they are a drain to the local economy. For this one article there are hundreds that have an opposing view. Might want to look at FAIR, Border Control or simply google.

  5. floyd says:

    michigan study concludes , coffee is an aphrodisiac.

  6. IR says:

    The study was sponsored by the Mexican consulate. Mexico sends us their citizens that they can’t take care of and profits off the deal. Another sponsor was a banking group; banks are making big money off opening accounts for illegal aliens and giving home loans to illegal aliens. In other words, profiting off illegal activity.

    Without reading the study I’m not certain, but based on the sponsors and the highly skewed findings I’d imagine there’s something they aren’t telling us.

    Should bloggers help a foreign country spread their propaganda, or should they at least verify that the study doesn’t have major flaws?

    For more about Mexico’s attempts to meddle in our internal politics and gain political power in our country, see this highly recommended article.

    The study also combines legal Hispanics with illegal aliens.

    And, some of the facts that illegal immigration boosters tend to ignore are highlighted here.

  7. RJN says:

    I did read the study – I had to go to Balko’s site to get a working link – and it was largely a puff piece. To a skeptic it shows that immigrants to North Carolina, from Mexico, depress local construction wages.

    It appears to me that the main beneficiaries of this kind of cheaper labor is the public sector employee class. Ordinary middle class, and lower middle class, residents are in a race to the bottom with so many of the rest of us.

  8. jimbo says:

    The only issue should be illegal immigration. People coming here for economic betterment should not be penalized, no matter what their language or where they come from; but massive violation of the law encouraged by economic elites is terrible. I wish that people like Tancredo would stop demonizing the immigrants and go after the corporate and wealthy suburban elites who actively encourage illegal immigration. If a few Georgetown housewives got thrown in jail for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants there would be some changes made.

  9. floyd says:

    YOU GO JIMBO!YEAH!