Study Says Immigrants Help New York Economy and Quality of Life

For VOA Learning English, this is the Economics Report.

For many years, immigrants have sought better lives for themselves in New York City. Now, a new study says, that immigrants also have helped the city's economy remain strong. New York is in many ways a city of immigrants. The Mayor's office says, the group makes up more than 40 percent of New York's population.

The Americas Society/Council of the Americas, or AS/COA is a group that explores issues affecting the American. It supported a recent study about how immigrants affect New York City's economy. The study looked at immigration records and neighborhood police reports between 1990 and 2010.

The report's author, Jacob Vigdor says New York City's economy and the quality of life improved during that period. He says immigrants move into aging, troubled neighborhoods because housing less costly. Then, he says, in turn, crime rates drop.

Robert Sampson is a social policy professor at Harvard University. He says immigrants who take risks to get to America are less likely to take part in crime and more likely to work hard.

AS/COA's Kate Brick says immigrants are more willing to accept lower paying, less desirable jobs than non-immigrants. Jacob Vigdor says all immigrants help support the economy in some wyas by paying sales tax and property taxes. AS/COA hopes the report will influence other US cities to welcome immigrants in ways that help everyone.

For VOA Learning English, I'm Carolyn Presutti.