Immigration and the Impact on Social Security’s Future
With border control and the focus on illegal immigration so much in the news these days, it’s easy to lose perspective on the positive role that immigration–legal immigration–plays in the current and future Social Security financing situation. With the current worker-to-beneficiary ratio sitting at 2.8 to 1 (and falling), the importance of adding legal immigrants to the taxpaying workforce becomes a key piece of the forecasting puzzle for Social Security’s long-term finances. In fact, as a recent Fox Business report points out, the Social Security Trustees last year noted that “…for every 100,000-person net increase in average annual immigration, the long-term actuarial deficit drops by about 0.08%. The opposite is true if net immigration declines over time.”
The attached post by www.foxbusiness.com’ editorial staff portrays immigration as a “net positive” for Social Security, and goes on the quantify the financial impact that immigration has on Social Security’s future, primarily since immigrants tend to be younger and likely to be a part of the workforce for longer periods of time. Their conclusion is that “there’s little doubt that immigration is having a positive outcome on Social Security.” It’s an interesting view on yet another dimension of the Social Security picture, and you can read it here…
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