Episode 51: America Relies on Immigrants

Immigration is, as happens fairly routinely, an important topic in the national conversation these days. It's generally well-accepted that the United States is "a nation of immigrants," and yet there remains a stubborn skepticism about new immigrants. These concerns generally branch into two broad categories: economic concerns and social concerns. Economically, citizens seem to think that immigrants are "taking our jobs" or "a drain on the system." Socially, citizens are of the belief that immigrants are "undermining American culture." But are any of these concerns warranted? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they discuss this and more on this week's episode of Words and Numbers.

Quick Hits:

Denver hires homeless people

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/denver-hired-homeless-people-perform-day-labor-city-100-landed-regular-jobs/ 

Koch donating $400 million to candidates

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/27/politics/koch-republican-election-candidates-donate/index.html 

https://nrf.com/resources/consumer-research-and-data/holiday-spending/halloween-headquarters 

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/04/fourth-of-july-spending-by-the-numbers.html 

https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/topindivs.php 

Foolishness of the week

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/24/580228837/a-dozen-camels-disqualified-from-saudi-beauty-pageant-over-botox-injections 

Topic of the week

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/Annual-Number-of-US-Legal-Permanent-Residents 

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/27/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/ 

http://www.pewhispanic.org/2016/11/03/size-of-u-s-unauthorized-immigrant-workforce-stable-after-the-great-recession/ 

http://www.businessinsider.com/major-us-companies-founded-by-immigrants-2017-2 

http://startupsusa.org/fortune500/#appendix 

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/19/news/economy/undocumented-immigrant-taxes/index.html 

https://itep.org/wp-content/uploads/immigration2016.pdf 

https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/advocacy/United_States.pdf

https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/advocacy/United_States.pdf

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/09/undocumented-immigrants-and-taxes/499604/ 

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/despite-the-rancor-there-is-much-that-unites-americans-20171116.html