The study, “ Migration and the Economy ,” goes to great length in explaining the unappreciated beneficial impact from the global movement of our fellow humans. The headline stat is that without migration, US economic growth would have been roughly 15 percentage points lower than it actually has been. Or to put it another way: “While not quite putting the US in recession, this is enough to cancel out the majority of post crisis gains.”

And how, exactly, does immigration boost growth? First, there is a labor market impact. More immigrants means more hours worked in the economy. Immigration also often boosts labor supply by increasing female labor force participation via the mechanism of “substantially reduced costs in care services.”

Second, an increase in skilled migration can directly increase the aggregate level of human capital while low-skilled migration can indirectly boost the supply of skilled labor by increasing the labor force participation of skilled women.

Third, there is the innovation impact.