Myths and Realities of Immigration

The full document has a few bulleted points about each myth and includes citations. Below are just the plain myth/fact statements (about 20 of them).

Immigration and Economics

Myth: Immigrants take jobs from United States citizens.
Reality: Most studies agree that immigrants create more jobs than they fill.

Myth: Immigrants drain the United States economy and are partly responsible for our current economic woes.
Reality: The contributions of immigrant workers, taxpayers, and business-owners are vital to economic growth.

Myth: Immigrants make such heavy use of social services that they are a burden on the United States treasury.
Reality: Immigrants are a net gain for the national treasury, because they pay significantly more in taxes each year than they receive in services.

Immigration and Population

Myth: The United States today has a higher percentage of immigrants than ever before.
Reality: The percentage of immigrants among United States residents was higher at the beginning of the 20th century than it is now.

Myth: The United States has a higher percentage of immigrants than any other country.
Reality: Although the United States numerically has the largest immigrant population of any country in the world, it takes in only 1% of the world’s immigrants, and the U.S. is not even among the top ten countries when immigrant population is counted as a percentage of total population.

Myth: Immigrants bring huge extended families to the United States through “chain migration.”
Reality: So-called “chain migration” is not a real legal loophole, and studies show it doesn’t really happen.

Myth: The United States has too many people and too few economic resources to accommodate more immigrants.
Reality: The United States is still very wealthy and relatively uncrowded.

Immigration and Culture

Myth: Immigrants have nothing to contribute to American society.
Reality: In addition to making major economic contributions, immigrants contribute to society as workers in diverse fields and as responsible community members.

Myth: Immigrants fragment the culture of the United States by refusing to assimilate to an American way of life.
Reality: There is no one American way of life. Immigrants coming to the United States are changed by the experience and simultaneously help to change the United States; this process has built and shaped the country for as long as it has existed.

Myth: These days, immigrants to the United States will not learn English unless forced to by “English Only” laws.
Reality: Already, more immigrants already want to learn English than can find space in English classes. “English Only” laws simply make life more difficult for those who are still learning English.

Immigration & Fear

Myth: Many immigrants are dangerous criminals.
Reality: Most immigrants are responsible, law-abiding people seeking a better life in a new country.

Myth: Immigrants hurt the environment when crossing the borders to enter the country.
Reality: There is no correlation between immigration and environmental degradation. Borders themselves have negative environmental impacts through the border guards and factories that cluster near them.

Myth: Immigrants bring disease.
Reality: Recent immigrants and babies born to immigrants are actually slightly healthier, on the average, than people born in the U.S. and babies born to U.S.-born mothers.

Immigration and U.S. Policy

Myth: The U.S. Constitution doesn’t apply to immigrants.
Reality: The Supreme Court has ruled that every person in the United States-- regardless of immigration status-- is entitled to fundamental constitutional rights. However, the executive and legislative branches of the federal government sometimes fail to uphold these essential legal principles.

Myth: It is not the fault of the United States that people want to leave other countries.
Reality: United States policies, designed with United States interests in mind, have a long history of hurting the peoples and economies of other countries.

Myth: Most immigrants come to the United States illegally.
Reality: Most immigrants are documented under strict legal requirements. Fairly few people enter the country illegally.

Myth: United States immigration policy is fair and just.
Reality: The laws governing immigration to the United States tend to favor people likely to be white and wealthy over those likely to be poor or people of color. Such policies run counter to the fundamental ideals of equality upon which the United States is based.

Myth: Americans oppose immigration.
Reality: Americans, most of whom are descended from immigrants themselves, generally favor laws that would offer the same opportunities their ancestors enjoyed to people from all over the world, regardless of country of origin.