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Quotation of the Day…

… is from pages 152-153 of Philippe Legrain’s excellent 2007 book, Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them (footnotes excluded; link added):

Studies that follow immigrants over time generally conclude that while they might receive a little more than they pay in, their descendants are significant net contributors.  The US national Academy of Sciences found that the average foreign-born resident was a net recipient of $3,000 from government over their lifetime, while their kids were net contributors to the tune of $80,000 each.

And almost certainly the size of the first figure would fall, and that of the latter would rise, if the U.S. government abandoned its many efforts to prevent undocumented immigrants from working, as well as, in many cases, to restrict the range of jobs open even to documented (“legal”) immigrants.

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