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The French – whether native-born or immigrant – join in a celebration on the Champs-Elysee avenue in Paris on July 16 to welcome the national football team’s return after winning the World Cup in Russia. This is the vision of immigration and inclusive nationalism societies should be working towards. Photo: AFP
Opinion
The View
by Jason Furman
The View
by Jason Furman

The evidence is clear: anti-immigration is bad for economic growth

Jason Furman says the economic case for being open to immigrants is indisputable, particularly in ageing societies. Advanced societies now grappling with the rise of populist nationalism must work towards an inclusive vision – or pay the economic price

One of the central challenges facing the world’s advanced economies is slowing growth. Over the past decade, growth rates in the advanced economies have averaged 1.2 per cent, down from an average of 3.1 per cent during the previous 25 years. 

History shows that slower economic growth can make societies less generous, less tolerant and less inclusive. So, it stands to reason that the past decade of sluggish growth has contributed to the surge of a damaging form of populist nationalism that is taking hold in a growing number of countries.

As in the darker decades of the 20th century, today’s nationalism takes the form of heightened opposition to immigration and – to a lesser degree – free trade. Making matters worse, today’s toxic nationalism will exacerbate the economic slowdown that fuelled its emergence.

Turning this vicious circle into a virtuous one – in which increased openness drives faster growth – will depend, at least in part, on making immigration more compatible with inclusive forms of nationalism.

The economic evidence on this issue is clear: immigration makes a strong contribution to economic growth. Moreover, immigration is more necessary than ever, because population ageing and lower birth rates across advanced economies are producing a retirement boom without a commensurate cohort of native prime-age workers to support it.
An elderly woman in Akita, northern Japan. Population ageing across advanced economies is producing a retirement boom without a commensurate cohort of native prime-age workers to support it. Photo: Reuters
For example, Japan’s working-age population has been shrinking since 1995. In the European Union, immigrants accounted for 70 per cent of labour-force growth from 2000 to 2010. And in the United States, immigration is the primary reason the workforce will continue to grow; if the US relied only on native-born workers, its labour force would shrink.

Faster growth is beneficial even if it must support a larger population, because working immigrants pay taxes that help support pensioners and retirees. In general, it is much better to be a fast-growing country with a vibrant, expanding population than a country with a dwindling population, like Japan.

Moreover, in addition to expanding the workforce, immigrants actually boost per capita gross domestic product by increasing productivity – that is, the amount that each worker produces. The reason is that immigrants are much more likely to be entrepreneurial and start new businesses.

In Germany, for example, foreign-passport holders started 44 per cent of new businesses in 2015. In France, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has estimated that immigrants engage in 29 per cent more entrepreneurial activity than native-born workers, which is similar to the average for the OECD as a whole. And, in the US, immigrants take out patents at 2-3 times the rate of native-born citizens, and their innovations benefit non-immigrants as well.

New US citizens take the oath during a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 18. In the US, immigrants take out patents at 2-3 times the rate of native-born citizens, and their innovations benefit non-immigrants as well. Photo: Reuters

There can be little doubt that immigrants expand the overall pie; but what about their effect on how that pie is shared? Here, the evidence is less clear. There are certainly winners and losers. Yet, on balance, the evidence suggests that immigrants do not reduce wages for native-born workers. In fact, it is more likely that immigrants increase wages overall.

One recent study of France, for example, found that each 1 per cent increase in immigrants’ share of employment within a given département raises its native-born workers’ wages by 0.5 per cent. It would seem that, in addition to contributing to the size and productivity of the workforce, immigrants also often complement the skills of native-born workers, helping them earn more.

My professional focus is on economics, so I have emphasised the role of growth. But that clearly is not the only factor behind the rise of populist nationalism. The fact that developed countries are changing culturally also matters, perhaps even more so.

In the US, for example, the foreign-born share of the population has risen from 5 per cent in 1960 to around 14 per cent today. As Harvard University’s Yascha Mounk notes in his insightful new book, The People vs Democracy, that is the highest share since the last major anti-immigrant backlash in the US: the early 20th-century “yellow peril”.

Anti-immigration activists in Seoul, South Korea, attend a protest against a group of asylum seekers from Yemen, on June 30. Hundreds of asylum seekers fleeing war-ravaged Yemen have landed on the southern island of Jeju, sparking calls for their expulsion. Photo: AFP

The trends are similar, and sometimes even more dramatic, in other developed countries. The foreign-born share of the population in Sweden, for example, has gone from 4 per cent in 1960 to 19 per cent today, representing a much larger shift than that in the US.

All countries face a choice when it comes to immigration. They can pay an economic price to follow a more exclusionary course, or they can reap the economic benefits from greater openness. But while public policies can help ensure that the benefits of openness are realised, we should not lose sight of their political and economic limitations.

Looking beyond policy solutions, we also need to establish a cultural expectation that immigrants will not just bring diverse perspectives, but also join their new country as citizens. That means speaking the language, honouring national traditions, and – as I saw first-hand while discussing these issues at Les Rencontres Économiques in Aix-en-Provence, France – cheering for the national soccer team.

In the US, in particular, that is the vision of immigration and inclusive nationalism that we should be working towards – including the better soccer team.

Jason Furman, professor of the practice of economic policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, was chairman of president Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. Copyright: Project Syndicate

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Getting the job done
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