Outlet: WBGO

There’s a lot of controversy about how immigration affects jobs and workers native to a country. A professor from the University of Pennsylvania is trying to clear it up. Zeke Hernandez spoke to the Garden State Immigration Policy Institute. He said immigrants don’t always want to work for someone else.

“Immigrants not only attract investment from their home countries, they put their own investment in businesses that they start directly,” he said. “Research tells us that immigrants are 80 percent more likely to start businesses than are native-born people.”

He said these businesses tend to be job creators.

“Whether it’s a tiny business like your corner restaurant or mom and pop shop, or a very large business like Google, Zoom, Duolingo, Pfizer, any kind of business you can imagine, many of them in the Fortune 500, businesses that immigrants start create more jobs at all size levels than native founded businesses,” he said.

Hernandez said immigrants invest in the places they decide to call home.

“Immigrants arrive, they increase the stock of capital investment in the communities where they live, and that creates jobs,” he said, “and most of those jobs go to native workers. This is a win-win, so if you want jobs you want immigrants because you want investment, that’s what you need to understand.”