Summary:Many people have argued over the costs and benefits of immigrants to California and the U.S. But the Institute′s Perry Wong suggested that we not view immigration from the conventional cost-accounting perspective.
Instead, we should view the costs as investments in future economic growth, he said. Immigrants become more productive over time and the benefits of this accrue to society as a whole, he said.
Dominic Ng of East West Bancorp cited well-known U.S. companies, such as Yahoo! and Google, as being founded by immigrants. Many prominent people in the entertainment industry are also immigrants, proving that the benefits to society from immigration are more than just economic.
Michael Milken pointed out some changes in immigration patterns. For example, most U.S. immigrants today come from Latin America and Asia, a change from a few decades ago when most came from Europe. Also, the majority of today′s immigrants are between 18 and 39 years old. Wong said this is a great benefit to the U.S., because these immigrants can contribute to the economic growth since most are young and need to work. But, he said, "We need to find an efficient mechanism to turn them into a more productive workforce."
Attracting the best and brightest immigrants has become more difficult since 9/11. Milken said that since then, applications to U.S. universities by international students had dropped 32 percent.
Antonia Hernández stated that these students had transformed America into the vital economy it is today. The panel agreed that attracting bright, young, entrepreneurial immigrants is very important to the U.S.
The strength of Los Angeles also rests on its diverse population, said Hernández. It connects L.A. to the rest of the world, because there are so many immigrants from different parts of the world here. California is missing an opportunity to take advantage of this growing diversity, said Ng. Teaching people, especially children, to deal with foreign cultures will prepare them for jobs in a globalized world.
