Lazaro Aleman: Greene Publishing, Inc.
The latest analysis from the personal-finance website WalletHub finds Florida would be impacted well above average economically as a consequence of President Trump’s immigration-policy reform.
Florida, according to the study, titled 2017’s Economic Impact of Immigration by State, ranked 13th overall on a scale where one signified the greatest impact and 51 the least, with 25 the average.
To determine the states where immigration had the most positive economic impact, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, across four dimensions. The four were immigrant workforce, socioeconomic contribution, brain gain and innovation, and international students.
“We examined those dimensions using 18 key metrics,” the analysts explain their methodology, noting that each weighted metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the ‘most positive economic impact.’”
The analysts then “calculated the overall score for each city and the District based on its weighted average across all metrics and used the resulting scores to construct their final ranking.”
Florida’s total score, out of a possible 100, was 47.56, with California achieving the highest score at 71.34. On the individual four dimensions, the lower the number, the higher the impact, and vice versa, with 51 being the least impacted. Here’s how Florida ranked on the four dimensions: immigrant workforce: 5; socioeconomic contribution: 7; brain gain and innovation: 25; and international students: 35.
Relative to the 18 metrics, which went into determining the outcome of the dimensions, here’s how Florida scored on some of these.
Highest percentage of jobs generated by immigrant-owned businesses out of the state’s total jobs: 4.
Net difference between state and local revenues and expenditures per individual immigrant: 27.
Percentage of foreign-born STEM workers out of the total STEM workers: 11.
Percentage of Fortune 500 companies founded by immigrants or their children: 16.
Percentage of jobs created by presence of international students out of total jobs: 27.
Share of foreign-born workforce: 5.
Share of boreign-born population: 4.
For a full review of the analysis and the experts who contributed to the findings, visit www.wallethub.com/edu/economic-impact-of-immigration-by-state.