The decline in refugees arriving in the US is costing the broader economy over $9.1 billion a year, according to a peer-reviewed paper published in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy.
“The sharp decline in US refugee admissions from 2017 now costs the entire US economy over $9.1 billion a year,” the paper concluded. It also costs public coffers “at all levels of government” over $2 billion a year, he added.
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, sent two flights carrying Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard last week. A Texas sheriff launched an investigation Monday into the legality of the flights.”
“Beyond the assertion of a need for protection, refugees and asylum seekers are economic actors. All are consumers, most are (or will be) workers, and many are (or will be) investors,” wrote author Michael Clemens, director of migration, displacement and humanitarian policy at the Center for Global Development.
The paper examined the impact of more restrictive refugee admission policies from 2017 to 2020. The exclusion policies blocked about 73% of the refugees who would have arrived in 2018, Clemens estimates.
The decline in international migrants costs the economy an average of $30,962 per missing fugitive per year and the government $6,844 per year per missing fugitive, the study found.
The report comes at a time of heightened tensions surrounding refugees and migrants. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, sent two flights carrying Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard last week. A Texas sheriff launched an investigation Monday into the legality of the flights.
“The number of admitted refugees in the US has fallen from 84,994 in 2016 to 30,000 in 2019. This has adverse economic consequences for the country, said economist Michael Clemens.”
Julio Henriquez, a lawyer who met with several migrants, said they had “no idea where they were going or where they were,” the Associated Press reported.
The number of admitted refugees in the US has fallen from 84,994 in 2016 to 30,000 in 2019, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute.
“In short, the implications of past, recent refugee exclusion policies in the United States are complex,” Clemens wrote on Twitter TWTR.
“Many are obviously not economical. But they carry large, ongoing, enduring economic costs for the average American.”
