California’s Economy Benefits from Immigrants

California’s economy benefits more from immigration than any other state in the country, according to an in-depth analysis by WalletHub, a personal finance website. The report found that California’s economy is the most highly affected by immigration, followed by New Jersey and New York.

Specifically, California has the highest percentage of foreign-born STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) workers as well as jobs generated by immigrant-owned businesses. The state places in the top 20th percentile for having the most jobs created by a presence of international students as well as economic contribution of international students per capita. It falls in the mid-range for percentage of median household income of the foreign-born population as well as net difference between state and local revenues out of total jobs.

These facts were among the website’s report on 2017’s Economic Impact of Immigration by State. WalletHub, owned by Evolution Finance Inc. of Washington, D.C., and launched in 2013 by CEO Odysseas Papadimitriou, markets itself as the first website to offer free credit scores and daily full credit reports. Studies like the immigration report are frequently conducted to provide “industry transparency for customers,” its website stated. To conduct this study, WalletHub’s analysts compared immigrant workforce, socioeconomic contribution, brain gain and innovators, and number of international students across different states.