"Immigration is boosting the US economy," per Paul Krugman

Immigration isn't taking jobs from Americans and is actually beneficial for the US economy, according to Nobel laureate Paul Krugman.

In a New York Times op-ed, Krugman addressed economic concerns about immigration, citing claims from former President Trump that immigrants have been taking job gains away from native-born Americans. However, Krugman argued that the data do not support this claim. The unemployment rate for US-born workers has remained near a historical low of 4.3%, according to data from the Federal Reserve.

While the labor force participation rate among native-born workers has been declining, the rate among prime-age native-born workers has been increasing, as shown by Fed data. This trend suggests that the stagnation among US workers is primarily due to the retirement of the baby boomer generation, Krugman explained.

"So the near stagnation of native-born employment isn't a demand-side issue, where people aren't working because they can't find jobs. It is instead a supply-side issue, where people aren't working because they've reached retirement age. We've been able to achieve large increases in overall employment only because working-age immigrants have been coming to America. If we didn't have the immigrants, we wouldn't have the jobs," Krugman wrote.

He also noted that immigration has contributed to wage growth, as immigrants do not directly compete with US workers for the same positions. Wages among all workers have increased by 25% since 2020, coinciding with a rise in the employment of foreign-born workers in the US.