| <No.697> |
| DACA Repeal Could Cost US Businesses, Economy Billions |
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For DACA recipients,
to be laid off
and forced to leave the only country
ever considered home
is a near-impossible price to quantify.
But for the businesses tasked with the firing,
the financial repercussions are clear.
Kathryn Wylde heads Partnership for New York City,
representing the city’s business leadership.
She says the state’s DACA workforce contributes several billion dollars a year
to the local economy.
"Losing that is a direct cost.
But it’s also a signal
to the rest of the world
that somehow America is no longer a place
that is embracing talent and hard work and the energy of immigrants.
So, that message has a ripple effect
in terms of hurting recruitment efforts
by our major companies,
because they need talent -
multilingual talent -
from all over the world."
Research by the CATO Institute calculates
that the rollback of DACA will cost employers $6.3 billion
in turnover costs,
a figure
that accounts for the recruiting, hiring and training of 720,000 new employees
in often highly skilled positions.
Thirty-six percent of DACA recipients
25 years and older
hold a bachelor’s or advanced degree.
"Many of them are highly educated
and working in positions
such as health care and education,
where they are more highly paid
and therefore more productive.
And that’s the industries
where you’re gonna see a greater impact
as a result of this forced turnover
caused by the DACA repeal."
Following the announcement of DACA’s repeal,
the White House suggested
unemployed American workers might somehow benefit,
based solely on the age of the workforce.
"There are over 4 million unemployed Americans
in the same age group
as those that are DACA recipients -
that are over 950,000 of those are African-Americans
in the same age group,
over 870,000 unemployed Hispanics
in the same age group.
Those are large groups of people
that are unemployed
that could possibly have those jobs."
But economists and immigration analysts are quick to point out the fallacy
with Sanders’ argument.
"Contracting the labor force,
kicking people out of the country,
will not create jobs.
It will just shrink the overall size of the economy."
$280 billion are losses
over the next decade,
according to the conservative-leaning CATO Institute.
The liberal-leaning Center for American Progress estimates the DACA’s impact
at a $460 billion loss
over the same time flame.
Ramon Taylor, VOA News, New York |
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