The report was prepared in partnership with the city of Dallas and uses data from the American Community Survey, an annual study that provides communities with new data to plan for investments and services.
“I think some of the best key findings are the importance of immigrants, especially in the job and labor areas,” Steven Hubbard, a senior data scientist with the American Immigration Council, said of the report. “There are a lot of jobs [that] are needing workers, and immigrants often fulfill and step into those roles.”
In 2022, immigrants accounted for 23.2% of the population in Dallas. About 80% of them have lived in the city for more than five years. Nearly 42% of all Dallas residents spoke a language other than English at home.
Additionally, one-third of households in the city had at least one immigrant resident. Even though they make up only 23.2% of the total population, immigrants represent 28.4% of the city’s employed labor force. Also in 2022, immigrants were 34.5% more likely to be of working age than their U.S.-born counterparts. “The working age population of immigrants is much higher,” Hubbard said.
Immigrants contribute billions in taxes and consumer spending. In 2022, immigrant households earned about $10.7 billion in income, of which $1.6 billion went to federal taxes and $900.6 million to state and local taxes. This left them $8.2 billion in spending power to be reinvested in local communities.“There are a lot of jobs who are needing workers, and immigrants often fulfill and step into those roles.” – Steven Hubbard, American Immigration Council
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The American Immigration Council also highlighted the importance of immigrant students in the report. “We find this in lots of different cities, especially that have colleges and universities, international students played a critical role in helping also adding to the economy,” Hubbard said. “We often don’t think about that.”
The report found that immigrants are working in fast-growing industries and are creating their own businesses. “We often find that immigrants are highly involved in some of the technology, math and science areas,” Hubbard said. “Those are important to keeping the economy going, especially as we’re facing more AI jobs. … Having those workers and being a city that has a healthy tech industry is important.” Immigrants comprised 26.4% of STEM workers, 63.2% of construction workers and 39.6% of manufacturing workers in 2022. They also made up 38.9% of business owners in the city. “Immigrants are often working and become entrepreneurs,” Hubbard said.
He added there’s often a misconception that immigrants are a burden on social services, but this report shows that’s just not true. Only 15.8% of immigrants in the city received Medicare and Medicaid, whereas 32.7% of the U.S. born population in the city received those same services.
“So, far less immigrants, of course, are using Medicare and Medicaid, but they contribute quite a bit to those areas,” Hubbard said.
Immigrants also contributed $1.1 billion to Social Security and $274.5 million to Medicare in 2022.
“Some of those immigrants may not receive those benefits,” he said. “So, I think that’s important, that misconception that they aren’t paying taxes or they’re just using services without paying taxes, but they add a lot to the spending power and the tax contributions to the city of Dallas.”
