The Economic Benefits of Immigrant Authorization in California

The Economic Benefits of Immigrant Authorization in California measures the benefits that would accrue to the state and the nation if the currently unauthorized Latino workforce in California were legalized.  

Researchers at the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration used a conservative economic model that accounts for the wage "penalty" incurred by the undocumented, assumes a very slow increase in English skills and educational levels, and does not account for gains from future migration. Despite this conservative modeling, the report finds that significant immediate and long-term benefits would accrue not only to affected workers, but to the state and nation overall. The report finds that undocumented status not only penalizes workers but also has significant social and economic implications. The authors estimate that California would eventually benefit from Latino immigrant legalization by $16 billion annually. Among the report's other findings:

1. The wages earned by California's unauthorized Latino immigrant workers are substantially lower than those of workers with similar human capital characteristics and in similar jobs.
2. As a result, unauthorized Latino immigrants in California missed out on approximately $2.2 billion in wages and salary income in 2009 alone due solely to their legal status, and the state lost out on the multiplied impacts of that potential income and spending, suggesting a total potential gain of $3.25 billion annually from authorization.

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