EW AMERICANS IN THE KEYSTONE STATE: Pennsylvania’s Immigrants, Latinos, and Asians are a Political and Economic Powerhouse

The Immigration Policy Center has compiled research which shows that immigrants, Latinos, and Asians not only wield political power in Pennsylvania, but are an integral part of the state’s economy and tax base. As workers, taxpayers, consumers, and entrepreneurs, immigrants and their children are an economic powerhouse. As voters, they are a growing political force. Yet anti-immigrant groups are exaggerating the alleged fiscal “costs” imposed by unauthorized immigrants, and are completely discounting the many economic benefits which immigrants, Latinos, and Asians bring to the Keystone State.

Highlights of the research include:

• Immigrants make up about 5.4% of Pennsylvania’s total population, and half of them are naturalized citizens who are eligible to vote.
• New Americans (naturalized U.S. citizens and their U.S.-born children) represent 5.2% of registered voters.
• The purchasing power of Pennsylvania’s Latinos and Asians totaled $22.6 billion in 2008.
• Businesses owned by Latinos and Asians had sales and receipts of $8.2 billion and employed nearly 53,000 people in 2002 (the last year for which data is available).
• If all unauthorized immigrants were removed from Pennsylvania, the state would lose $5.3 billion in expenditures, $2.3 billion in economic output, and about 27,000 jobs.

There is no denying the contributions immigrants, Latinos, and Asians make and the important role they play in Pennsylvania’s political and economic future. Pennsylvania’s budget deficit was not created by immigrants and it won’t be filled by attacking them. For more data on the contributions of immigrants, Latinos, and Asians to Pennsylvania’s economy, view the IPC fact sheet in its entirety.

To read more about attacks by anti-immigrant groups against Pennsylvania’s immigrant population read our blog post:

• FAIR Takes Aim at Pennsylvania’s Immigrants and Children

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• Some U.S. Democrats see momentum building for an overhaul of immigration laws that would legalize millions of undocumented workers, but analysts say a crowded agenda and struggling economy may once again sink hopes for reform next year.
• Economic Blame Game: U.S. Unemployment is Not Caused by Immigration
• The purchasing power of Hispanics is growing at a rate nearly 3 times as fast as that of the general population in Arizona and nationwide, said an Arizona State University business expert who has studied the market for 14 years.
• Latino population growth adds to House seats – 6 states expected to gain congressional slots due to surge in Hispanic numbers
• Trend Toward Smaller Families in Latin America – The number of people per household in Latin America will fall by 18 percent by 2020, according to a study released in this capital Tuesday by consulting firm Euromonitor International.
• Environmentalists alarmed by Puerto Rico policies – Sweeping from lush mountain rain forests to pristine beaches, a corridor of land protected by Puerto Rico’s last governor hosts dozens of rare and endangered species and was championed by celebrities who helped fight off resort proposals. – Now new Gov. Luis Fortuno has revoked the reserve as part of a drive to bring jobs and investment for the U.S. territory’s struggling economy. And activists see a broader pattern of looser protection for the island’s environment.
• The Puerto Rico Senate approved a bill that will allow big stores to open Sundays, a measure that aims at boosting the U.S. commonwealth’s stagnant economy, but which is opposed by owners of smaller stores.
• Poll: Cubans ‘frustrated’ over life in Cuba – A poll conducted in Cuba shows residents unhappy with their government and pessimistic about the economy.
• Undocumented workers impact Mississippi’s economy
• Latinos make up a combined 77% of the population growth in the eleven states projected to lose a House seat – would have fared worse had Latinos not moved there in record numbers
• After the 2010 Census, new Members of Congress in states like Georgia and South Carolina as well as Arizona and Texas will owe their positions, in part, to the expanding Latino population.
• Magnet States for Hispanics in 2008: Marketing Implications – Felipe Korzenny
• ASU, ALRE release major study on Arizona’s Latino population – (direct link to report & powerpoint)
• Men, especially Hispanics, hard hit by loss of good jobs
• Mexico and the Crisis of a Dependent Economy – The well-known 19th century Mexican saying—”poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States”—has become more poignant today than ever in the context of the global economic crisis.
• Women play a bigger role in Mexico’s drug war – Addiction, the economy and the lure of living well have sucked many into the narcotics underworld. The trend threatens the foundations of Mexican society.
• At Napa’s Latino markets, owners and shoppers feel the pinch
• Hispanic population growing in Eau Claire, Wisconsin
• Like California’s 30 years ago, Oregon’s growing Latino population is reaching a tipping point: A critical mass of Latino professionals is starting to organize and influence state and local politics. – dubbed Latino Agenda for Action
• In a new book Migration and the Transformation of the Southern Workplace Since 1945 (University of Florida Press), University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Professor of History Colin Davis, Ph.D., along with his co-editor, Robert Cassanello, present a collection of seven essays that examine the impact that migration and globalization are having on labor in the American South.