Mass migration has left a positive legacy on economic development in the U.S.

For many commentators, the U.S. has turned away from the ideals behind the inscription on New York Harbour’s Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”, in favour of increasingly stringent immigration policies. Using census data from 19th and early 20th centuries, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Viola von Berlepsch find that mass immigration has been integral to U.S. economic development. They write that those places where migrants settled over a century ago are now significantly better off than those that were untouched by migration. By restricting immigration now, the U.S. could be hampering its own future economic growth.