Foreign and Native born residents of Massachusetts: a balanced relationship

By Melissa Mongogna

In the recent article prepared for The Immigrant Learning Center titled “Massachusetts Immigrants by the Numbers: Demographic Characteristics and Economic Footprint” foreign born immigrants to Massachusetts are examined in relation to native born in regards to basic demographics (age, location, profession, household make-up, degree attainment, etc), social services used (public education, welfare, etc), and societal contributions (tax payers, consumers, etc). What they found was that, on the whole, established immigrants and natives are much alike.

The study found that immigrants bring diversity, population growth, and basic job growth in both low skilled (food service, administration, manufacturing) and high valued fields (such as science and technology) which allow Massachusetts to not only run efficiently as the population ages but also remain competitive in the global market. Additionally, as immigrants tend to immigrate between ages 25-44, they are of prime working age to replace the large portion of retiring Massachusetts baby boomers ensuring Massachusetts’s continued economic progression.

According to the report, recent immigrants face challenges such as poverty, limited English language skills and low educational attainment among some groups. The incidence of poverty for recent immigrants is significantly greater than for natives. Overall, however the report finds that immigrants are overrepresented at both the low end and the high end of the occupational distribution, degree attainment and income making comprehensive statements about wealth and success difficult to generalize.

Estimates show that while there are differences between natives and immigrants in the payment of taxes and receipt of social services and transfer payments (food stamps, public assistance, Social Security, etc.), these differences are not great. First, immigrants receive transfer payments at a lower rate and lower amounts than natives and must wait five years to be eligible for any transfer (social assistance) payments. Additionally, because they own less property, invest less and have overall lower incomes, immigrants tend to pay somewhat less overall in taxes than natives. But they pay into the state income tax system at a higher rate than their percentage of the population (somewhat due to the split filing of head of households due to spouses not being able to immigrate). Immigrants do send more children to the public schools (however, those are often native-born children so can also be considered an investment in the state’s future workforce) but are institutionalized (correctional facilities, juvenile facilities, nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, residential schools and social assistance) at significantly lower rates than are natives.

Overall, the report leaves one with a sense of foreign born residents having a symbiotic relationship to their new home in Massachusetts based on mutual benefit of both contributors.

Certainly one that is balanced in relation to their neighbor’s, native born residents of Massachusetts, contribution and consumption.

However, I invite you to make up your own mind based on these facts gathered by the Immigration Learning Center (http://www.ilctr.org/). To find out more details regarding foreign born resident’s strengths and challenges of living in Massachusetts, please read the full report at: http://www.ilctr.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/immigrants-by-the-numbers.pdf. While there read up on immigrant rights and other research about Massachusetts immigrants as entrepreneurs, workers and consumers.