Despite the media’s obsession with child immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, the average age of new immigrants is 20% older and many are now a “fiscal drain” on the U.S. economy, according to new reports.
In 2000, the average age was 26 and it has increased to 31, according to the Census Bureau.
Among populations of those 50 and older, the number has doubled, and they are consuming more federal support money in retirement and health care than they provide in taxes over their lifetime in the United States.
An analysis of the reports by the Center for Immigration Studies, just released, said, “immigrants who arrive at older ages tend to create a net fiscal drain, creating more costs for the government than they pay in taxes. Because immigrants are now arriving at older ages, including many at or near retirement, it means that the fiscal impact of immigration will be more negative or at least less positive than would have been the case had the average age of immigrants remained younger.”
CIS experts Steven A. Camarota and Karen Zeigler noted that younger immigrants have typically been cheered because they help to lower the age of America’s aging native population and they can contribute more in taxes over the lives than take government services.
But all that is changing with the rise in immigrant age.
“Older age groups have seen the largest increases. The share of newly arrived immigrants who are 50 or over nearly doubled, from 8% to 15%; the share 55 and over more than doubled, from 5% to 12%; and the share 65 and older roughly tripled, from 2% to 6%,” said the CIS report.
“On an annual basis, 276,000 immigrants 50 and older now settle in the country, including 213,000 immigrants 55 and older, and 113,000 who are 65 and older,” it added.
CIS, which used census figures on aging immigrants, also cited a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study that found aging immigrant populations costing American taxpayers.
“The immigrants who arrive at the oldest ages are, not surprisingly, extremely costly for taxpayers,” said the CIS report.
Some findings pulled directly from the report include:
- The Census survey from 2017 shows that, of immigrants who were 65 and older and had come in the five years prior, 31% were on Medicaid (the health insurance program for the poor) compared to 13% for the native-born.
- The vast majority of these immigrants had not been in the country long enough to pay into Medicare (the insurance program for the elderly) to be eligible for that program, but because many of them have incomes below the poverty threshold, they access Medicaid at very high rates.
- Immigrants over 65 who came to the United States at older ages accessed the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program at about five times the rate of natives age 65 and older. The program provides cash payment to the disabled and low-income elderly.
CIS concluded, “These figures are a good reminder that immigrants who arrive at older ages often struggle to support themselves and even if they may not be eligible for Medicare or Social Security, having not paid into those programs long enough or at all, they still will access programs like Medicaid and SSI at high rates. All of this means that the increase in the age at arrival of immigrants likely has negative fiscal implications, especially the significant increase in the number of immigrants coming in the oldest age groups.”
