AMA new study on immigration statistics in Massachusetts shows immigrants will play a critical role in the work force in the coming years and do not burden society, one of its authors said.The study, commissioned by the Immigrant Learning Center in Malden and based mostly on 2009 data, found immigrants had lower incomes but were more likely to be in the workforce than native-born residents.Immigrants also used comparable public services.“If there was any myth that immigrants are somehow costing society, that’s just not true,” said Alan Clayton-Matthews, a Northeastern University economics professor who co-authored the study with UMass-Boston political science professor Paul Watanabe.In Framingham, where 25 percent of the population is foreign-born, immigration attorney Kirk Carter said the study dispels myths about immigrants’ negative effect on the economy.“On an overall basis, immigration is a net positive,” Carter said. “It has been for over 240 years and should continue to be.”Almost 72 percent of immigrants participated in the workforce compared to 67.5 percent of native-born Bay State residents.But immigrants’ average income was $40,855, 11 percent less than that of someone born in the United States, the study found.About half of immigrants are 18 to 44 years old, compared to 36.8 percent of natives.“That’s important because going forward with the baby boomers (retiring), there will be a labor shortage that youthful immigrants could help minimize,” Clayton-Matthews said.Immigrants tend to be highly educated or have not graduated from high school, with few people in between, a trend that needs to change for them to take over for baby boomers, said Marcia Drew Hohn, a director at the learning center.Similarly, immigrants tend to fill highly skilled biotechnology and medical research fields and less skilled service and landscaping jobs, Hohn said.“I think that’s very striking,” she said. “We need to ... help people move beyond lower-skilled levels.”Hohn, who said the study includes legal and illegal immigrants, added that it underscores the need to offer in-state tuition to children of people here illegally.But Steve Kropper, co-chairman of Massachusetts Citizens for Immigration Reform, said the market would find a way to adjust to labor shortages.“The flood of illegal immigration is principally about low-skilled, low-wage workers,” Kropper said. “We have a high unemployment rate of low-skilled, low-educated workers.”Offering in-state tuition only encourages more illegal immigrants to come, he said.Immigrants, who comprise 14.4 percent of the state’s population, pay 14 percent of state income taxes, according to the study.Immigrants use slightly more public school services, but use less nursing and correctional services and about equal unemployment and food stamp benefits, Clayton-Mathews said.The study found that 9.7 percent of the prisoners in Massachusetts are immigrants, while 17.7 percent of people 18 to 64 years old are immigrants.The authors based those statistics on U.S. Census and state Department of Correction data.Framingham Police Chief Steven Carl said ethnicity does not affect whether someone commits a crime. Other circumstances such as drug addiction play a role, Carl said.“No one’s born a criminal,” Carl said.Carter said the prisoner statistic speaks to the “character and quality of people who come to the United States. ... They know that there’s opportunity here they haven’t been raised with.”
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