Consumer Demand
Economic activity produced by illegal immigrant spending employs about 5% of the total US workforce. Illegal immigrants occupy over 3 million dwellings, or just under 4% of the total number of homes in the US. UCLA research indicates immigrants produce $150 billion of economic activity equivalent to spending stimulus every year. The advantages of illegal migration tend mostly to be on the side of the employer. An employer will benefit from the illegal status of a migrant who is desperate for work and therefore prepared to accept poor pay, usually below local norms. Hiring an illegal worker also brings the employer the advantage of paying less in the way of welfare contributions and other non-wage costs.
Approximately 0.5 million dwellings have become permanently vacant as a result of a reduction in the illegal immigrant population.
The reduced demand for housing created permanent unemployment for hundreds of thousands of building contractors, realtors, and mortgage brokers.
Economic decline caused by reduced spending by illegal immigrants in the US occurred at the same time as a rise in unemployment of approximately 1 million legal US workers that provide goods and services for the illegal immigrant population.
Nearly every dollar earned by illegal immigrants is spent immediately, and the average wage for US citizens is $10.25/hour with an average of 34 hours per week. This means that approximately 8 million US jobs are dependent upon economic activity produced by illegal immigrant activities within the US.
Reverse migration of illegal immigrants from the US back to Mexico since the 2008 crisis has reduced the overall population of illegal Hispanic immigrants in the US.
Read more about this topic: Economic Impact Of Illegal Immigrants In The United States, Economic Benefits of Illegal Immigrants
Famous quotes containing the words consumer and/or demand:
“The misery of the middle-aged woman is a grey and hopeless thing, born of having nothing to live for, of disappointment and resentment at having been gypped by consumer society, and surviving merely to be the butt of its unthinking scorn.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
“The English masses are lovable: they are kind, decent, tolerant, practical and not stupid. The tragedy is that there are too many of them, and that they are aimless, having outgrown the servile functions for which they were encouraged to multiply. One day these huge crowds will have to seize power because there will be nothing else for them to do, and yet they neither demand power nor are ready to make use of it; they will learn only to be bored in a new way.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)