Not surprising. It’s a known fact of life, but it certainly helps to get confirmation in a scientific study.
That’s how immigration advocates and others are reacting to the findings contained in new research study which say, in effect, that the almost half million immigrants, most of them from the Caribbean and Central America, who have made Long Island – Suffolk and Nassau Counties – their home, are contributing far more in taxes, fees and in other ways to the economic and social life of the sprawling suburban area than they receive in return through the use of health, education and other social services.
In all, immigrants pump almost $11 billion to Long Island’s economy, according to the study conducted by Adelphi University and funded by the Hagedorn Foundation, in Port Washington. They increase productivity, launch new business enterprises and pay fees and other taxes.
“It’s known that immigrants contribute more to the further development of Long Island than they receive in services from county governments,” said Doug Mayers, president of the Roosevelt/Freeport Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement Colored People, NAACP, on Long Island. “They have moved into areas and revitalized communities, have established businesses that employ people and pay taxes and their children have and continue to make a mark on the educational system. In short, they have been good for Long Island. The immigrants are givers not takers.”
According to the new study, each immigrant, on average, contributes $2,305 more in government taxes and fees than they use in social services, including law enforcement. Just as important, the disposable income of immigrants, whether they are legal residents or undocumented immigrants, helped to create 82,000 jobs a year.
Using census data going back to 1980, Dr. Mariano Torras, professor of economics at Adelphi and a fellow at the Institute for Latin Studies at University of Notre Dame, reported that:
Although the net benefit, meaning the amount the government took in from each immigrant as compared with what it spent on them, varied depending on the ethnic group, the bottom line was that it was substantial. For instance, while Blacks, mainly from the Caribbean, contributed $789 more per person every year than he or she received; whites put in, $4,059 more; Asians, $3,249; and Hispanics $842 more than they got in services.
Hempstead, Freeport and Elmont in Nassau County and Brentwood in Suffolk County are the major immigrant centers on Long Island. Most of the 465,000 foreign-born residents on Long Island are from the Caribbean and Central America.
Most of the immigrants who came to the United States in the past 28 years and settled in Long Island are now naturalized American citizens and are entitled to vote on November 4th.
The foreign-born persons are generally in the “prime working age” group that is 18 to 44 years. The non-immigrant or native American share of the population in that age range was less than 33 per cent, indicating that as working adults the immigrants were contributing more than their fair share to the government.
Had it not been for the West Indians, Central Americans and others who settled on the “Island” from abroad, the population of Suffolk and Nassau counties would have declined as native born persons died or moved to other places.
“The study has unearthed some very significant information,” said Nick Perry, a New York State legislator who is himself an immigrant from the Caribbean. “It has always been my contention that immigrants make significant and positive contributions to every community in which they reside or have become a part of. All of the anti-immigrant sentiments directed at them are undeserved and where, in the case of Long Island where you have a county government that panders to those sentiments and go after immigrants in such a way as being out of step with what obtains in an immigrant state like New York, I think they need to take a second look at themselves and do the appropriate thing and that is to welcome immigrants.”
Dr. Marco Mason, a long-standing immigration advocate, said that the findings on Long Island were in line with what had been reported in prior scientific studies and they reflected what was happening around the country, including in New York City.
“What we have seen on Long Island reflects what’s really taking place around the country,” said Dr. Mason, a sociology professor at Medgar Evers College of the City of New York. “We know that immigrants have been making significant contributions to this country for decades and are continuing to do so, despite what some people would like us to believe. The Adelphi study is very important in a part of New York where the foreign- born residents have been vilified. What needs to be done now is for the government there to use the findings to improve services to immigrants since it has been shown that they are contributing more than they are taking out. That’s called justice and fairness.”
