As a researcher, I often discuss how data are a wealth of information. One of the crown jewels of our country’s data infrastructure—the U.S. Census—made headlines back in April with part one of its long-awaited release. Since 1790, our country has taken this once-a-decade headcount to understand who makes up America.

One major takeaway from the 2020 Census: our population is growing really slowly. This doesn’t bode well for our growth as a nation. If you look at countries like Japan that are ahead of us on this journey, a “graying” population—one with a large proportion of people of retirement age who aren’t in the workforce—hurts economic strength and weakens the social safety net for all.

What can we do to change our course? One idea is to value immigrants who live here and ensure they have opportunities to prosper. In 2015, Pew Research Center projected immigrants would make up 88 percent of the country’s population growth for the next 50 years. Though the new census data show a slowdown in immigration, it’s still set to become the main means of population growth over the next decade. And because this will be an extremely diverse population representing countries around the world, it’s important we recognize that the immigrant experience is not a singular story. We need to appreciate this diversity.

As many, many others have said before me, the United States is a nation of immigrants, and our economy would drastically suffer without them. One-quarter of the economic value of innovations in public companies are linked to immigrants. On top of that, 1 in 5 business owners are immigrant entrepreneurs.

While they drive our economy and society forward, people who immigrate to the United States also have to navigate new systems, cultural norms, and sometimes a new language. It’s a stressful process. My colleagues and I have found that even in the face of these challenges, many immigrant groups generally exhibit better mental health outcomes than expected. But these outcomes vary greatly depending on factors like race, ethnicity, income, country of origin, where one lives, and how old they were when they immigrated.

Supporting immigrant youth and first-generation Americans is essential to ensuring we all prosper. But our current systems—immigration, social, educational, and economic—are not well-designed to support them.

For instance, if a child is a U.S. citizen but their parents are not then the family can’t receive the child tax credit because there are eligibility restrictions based on immigration status. As my colleague Dolores Acevedo-Garcia recently wrote, these exclusions disproportionately hurt Latinx children. Also, 4 out of 5 immigrant children live in poverty, compared to about half of children born in the United States. These children are being left behind because of our public policies.

Some important steps are being taken to address these challenges, like the White House recently announcing that some DACA recipients would qualify for federal pandemic aid. We must continue to expand these opportunities so no one is left behind. 

If the past year has taught me anything, it’s that the only way we all will prosper is if everyone has what they need to thrive. If we embrace and support all people—whether they were born in Sacramento or San Salvador, whether they speak English or Cantonese or Arabic—I’m confident that our future will be prosperous.

Cariños,
Margarita