Source: WalletHub

I can't claim to know much about economics or immigration. So let's allow the studies of others help us understand the actual impact immigration has on our economy in Idaho versus the rest of the United States.

Immigration is a hot topic right now thanks to President Trump and his insistence on building a wall and barring entry of immigrants from certain countries. It is interesting to note that each state is affected differently by immigration.

WalletHub has compiled information from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Department of Labor to come up with an interactive map that shows how immigration impacts each state. They then used 18 key indicators to rank which states benefit the most from immigrants:

ranging from "median household income of foreign-born population” to “jobs generated by immigrant-owned businesses as a share of total jobs"

California is the state most dependent an immigration and Mississippi came in dead last. Before reading the stats, I would have guessed that Idaho would be pretty high on the list, since it is my understanding that our economy is extremely affected by immigrant workers. Well, I am wrong.

According to the research we are actually near the bottom of the list, ranked at 39. Now, this doesn't mean that Idaho doesn't benefit from immigration very much - it just means that there are 38 states who are more dependent and benefit from it than we do.

So, if Trump builds The Wall, does that mean we won't see much effect in Idaho? Does it surprise you that we ranked so low on the list in Idaho or does it seem about right?

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