APR 27, 2020
By Emily Linn, Executive Director
THROUGHOUT THE MONTH OF APRIL, WE’RE FOCUSING ON REFUGEE EMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT.
There are so many reasons to support refugee resettlement. We have a moral imperative to look out for each other. We benefit from cross-cultural exchange and the new flavors and colors that refugees bring to our community. And by providing relief to our world’s most vulnerable, we create a more stable, just and safe future for ourselves and our children. These reasons are what have driven us as a community and as a country to make refugee resettlement a priority—but there’s another compelling argument for this work.
It makes smart financial sense.
In the decade between 2005-2014, refugees contributed $63 billion to state and federal governments above what they cost. On average, each refugee contributes $2,183 more than they cost every year—and this contribution goes up over time. A 2018 study found that while refugees do require an upfront investment, costing taxpayers an average of $3,783 per person per year during their first 4 years in the US, by the time they’ve been here 5 years, they begin generating $1,500 each more in taxes than they cost. By the time they’ve been here 10 years, the average annual contribution jumps to $4,600. As a group, refugees actually cost taxpayers less over their lifetimes than the US-born population does.
As far as investments go, refugees turn out to be a pretty good one, offering consistent, growing returns for US taxpayers.
But the economic impact of refugees doesn’t stop there. Beyond the contributions that refugees make to the tax base, refugees are also significant drivers of economic activity.
Additionally, refugees are job creators. About 13 percent of refugees will start businesses over the course of their lifetimes that will go on to provide jobs to their communities and additional taxes to their state and local governments. In 2015, refugee-owned businesses generated $4.5 billion in business income that could then be taxed and reinvested in their communities. This entrepreneurial spirit is important because entrepreneurship is on the decline in the US. In 1980, about 16 percent of businesses in existence were less than a year old; today, only 9 percent of businesses were started in the last two years. Refugees are keeping America’s entrepreneurial spirit alive.
Finally, refugees are helping to fill a crucial role in our workforce. American workers are aging—and fast. By 2050, there will be over 80 million Americans over the age of 65. Newly-arriving refugees are, by contrast, quite young. In 2013, the median age of refugees in the US was 25 and 77 percent of the refugee population was of working age (25-64), as compared to 50 percent of the US-born population. Newly-arriving refugees, along with other immigrants, are helping to balance out our aging workforce and ensure that there continue to be enough laborers to support our economy and our way of life. In Northwest Arkansas, we’ve seen refugees step in to meet crucial labor needs in healthcare, transportation, manufacturing and food production. We continue to partner with our chambers of commerce and workforce development experts to make sure that we’re equipping our newly-arriving clients for careers in the fastest-growing sectors of our local economy.
While it’s too soon and our resettlement numbers so far are too small to meaningfully measure the economic impact that our 172 refugees have had on Northwest Arkansas, there are a few facts that really astound us:
- 100 percent of refugee households with at least one employable adult have had at least one person working within 6 months of arriving in Arkansas
- 100 percent of households with at least one employable adult have had their TEA (state cash assistance) cases closed due to income within 120 days of arrival and 40 percent have had their SNAP or Medicaid cases closed within 1 year of arrival.
- Three refugee households resettled by Canopy have purchased homes in the last two years
- Three refugees resettled by Canopy have started small enterprises in the last three years
At the end of the day, we believe in refugee resettlement first and foremost because it is the right, moral and just thing to do. We would believe in it even if it came at a financial cost to our community and country. But we love that we don’t have to choose between doing what’s right and what will prosper us economically. Refugee resettlement is both.
Sources:
http://research.newamericaneconomy.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/11/NAE_Refugees_V6.pdf
https://www.hias.org/sites/default/files/clevelandrefugeeeconomic-impact.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/19/us/politics/document-Refugee-Report.html
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