{"id":21639,"date":"2019-06-25T14:24:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T18:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=21639"},"modified":"2019-06-25T14:24:05","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T18:24:05","slug":"using-real-data-to-push-a-false-narrative-on-immigration-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2019\/06\/25\/using-real-data-to-push-a-false-narrative-on-immigration-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Real Data to Push a False Narrative on Immigration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
How many times are we told that immigrants work harder<\/a> than Americans? Or that more immigration is needed to extend the lifespan<\/a> of Social Security? Mass immigration appears to be the solution to all of the United States\u2019 financial woes. At least, that seems to be the message frequently pushed by the cheap-labor lobby and parroted by the mainstream media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One organization that pushes this narrative is the New American Economy<\/a> (NAE), which claims to \u201cuse powerful research to\u2026 tell a story of immigration that is about entrepreneurship, out-innovating our global competitors, and building prosperity in communities large and small across the country.\u201d Essentially, the organization is very open about the fact that they want to portray immigrants as far more valuable than native-born American citizens. They primarily \u201cprove\u201d this by producing reports that tout the perceived benefits that immigrants provide to state and local economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In one of their most recent reports<\/a> focusing on the Portland, Maine, metro area, the NAE claimed, based on data from the American Community Survey (ACS), that foreign-born residents made up 5.1 percent of the local workforce, and contributed $1.2 billion to the local GDP in 2016. Furthermore, the report touts the $252 million that immigrants paid in federal and state taxes. On the surface, that sounds quite impressive, but the report fails to provide critical context. Below are some very important data points from both the ACS<\/a> and Bureau of Economic Analysis<\/a> that the NAE conveniently left out of their report:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once all of the critical data\npoints are included, we reach a much different conclusion. While immigrants may\nindeed contribute roughly $1.2 billion to the Portland, Maine, area economy,\nthat is actually a concerningly small amount for the large number of\nforeign-born residents that reside in the area. On average, they contribute far\nless than native-born Americans. So if the proportion of immigrants in the area\nwere to continue increasing, the per-capita GDP would actually decrease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So while the NAE may be citing\nvalid statistics, they create a false narrative by presenting only the data\nthat furthers their open-borders agenda. This is an unethical practice known as\nthe \u201cfallacy of incomplete evidence,\u201d or \u201ccherry picking\u201d: presenting only information\nthat seems to prove your point, while leaving out important relevant data that\nmay contradict that position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mass immigration lobby has\nlittle interest in presenting facts in a truthful context. This report by the\nNAE is a clear demonstration of that. But when these organizations misrepresent\nthe truth in pursuit of importing a cheap labor force, it\u2019s the American worker\nthat ultimately pays the price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How many times are we told that immigrants work harder than Americans? Or that more immigration is needed to extend the lifespan of Social Security? Mass immigration appears to be the solution to all of the United States\u2019 financial woes. At least, that seems to be the message frequently pushed by the cheap-labor lobby and<\/p>\n