A new study released today says immigrants add $1.6 billion annually in spending to the state’s economy and fill a critical role in the workforce. The report from the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Office of Latino and Latin American Studies says immigrants created about 12,000 jobs across all sectors of the state’s economy in 2006. The study finds the loss of the foreign-born workforce could cost the state $13.5 billion and thousands of jobs.
It says that communities whose main industries depend on an influx of a new and young labor force and a generation of children willing to stay in those communities would be especially hard hit.
Officials with the office better known as OLLAS lay out several ideas in a policy brief, including recommending federal immigration reform to remove unnecessary impediments to citizenship.