Philadelphia Magazine: “Here’s How Much Spending Power Immigrants Hold in Philly”

If last week’s national “Day Without Immigrants” boycott wasn’t enough to signal the impact of immigrants on the economy, a data map released on Tuesday details the impact of immigrants across all 50 states, in all 435 congressional districts, and in the country’s 55 largest metro areas.

The New American Economy, a nonpartisan group of mayors and business leaders for immigration reform, released the interactive map to put “the economic power of America’s immigrants in stark relief,” according to John Feinblatt, chairman of the NAE. “Across the map, and in every industry, immigrants strengthen the economies of big cities and small towns alike.”

For Philly, the project affirms the idea that immigrants are tightly woven into the local economy. Here are five takeaways from the data visualization:

1. Immigrants paid $6 billion in taxes in 2014, including $1.7 billion in state and local taxes and $4.3 billion in federal taxes. In that same year, immigrants held $13.5 billion in spending power.
2. Immigrants in Philadelphia are about 41 percent more likely to be entrepreneurs than natives. Nationally they’re 28 percent more likely to be entrepreneurs. There are 40,171 immigrant entrepreneurs in Philly.

Read the full story from Philadelphia Magazine: “Here’s How Much Spending Power Immigrants Hold in Philly”