Connecticut National Guard troop rides in M113 armored personnel carrier like 10 Texas acquires to fight invasion. Photo Matthew Lucibello, Sergeant, U.S. Army National Guard

 

 

Fed Finds Texas Economy Magnet for Migrants
Who Leave Unfilled Jobs Behind in Buses Wake

Capitol Inside
November 29, 2022

The Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas offered a crash course in elementary economics on Tuesday with a report that shows how a record migrant surge in Texas has been a predictable function of a strong economy that's been a magnet for young adults who are moving here from other states and foreign countries.

The Fed issued the analysis several hours after Governor Greg Abbott portrayed Texas as the leading state for economic prosperity based on unprecedented job growth and a record number of positions that employers haven't filled.

"Texas has over 1 million job openings, the most ever," Abbott tweeted. "With wages rising 7.6% for job-switchers. Texas already has #1 fastest growing economy in America. We also added more new jobs in the past 4 years than any state."

But the Republican governor hasn't said if he's concerned that he could be doing the state economy a significant disservice by busing migrants from the poorest countries to other states instead of preparing them to be productive members of a Texas workforce that's dependent on them.

Abbott hasn't appeared to comprehend the fundamental connection between economic growth and immigration based on his words and actions alike in the past two years. Abbott demonstrated his disdain for migrants who've crossed the Rio Grande into Texas when he referred to them as "aliens" 10 times in an angry letter to President Joe Biden two weeks ago.

Abbott by the same token hasn't questioned publicly why state and local leaders in the nation's largest cities have welcomed the migrants that he's sent to them. The answer is obvious in and between the lines of the new Federal Reserve study on the inextricable link between migration and the economy.

The Fed focussed on the relationship between the Texas economy and the flow of people into the state from other parts of the U.S. and other nation's as well. The report revealed that domestic and international immigration to Texas has gone up and down with the economy.

"Texas has experienced net out-migration a few times, as it did in the late 1980s when the oil bust and savings and loan crisis sent the state economy into a tailspin," the authors of the Federal Reserve report said. "Absent such sharp shocks, net inflows are usually positive and ebb and flow with the relative strength of the state economy."

The study found that "net domestic migration" has accounted for more than 107,000 new Texas residents on average over the course of the past 20 years before vaulting beyond 170,000 in 2021. While the number of migrants who Abbott characterize this month as aliens has spiked for two years in Texas, the Federal Reserve review noted that international immigration subsided substantially during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and has increased as expected exponentially since that time as people who delayed journeys to the U.S. got them under way as the health crisis subsided.

Abbott- in sharp contrast - blames the surge on Biden exclusively without taking any other factors into account while offering no credible evidence to support his positions. Abbott runs the risk that the blinders approach and the migrant bus program that stems from it could come back to haunt the state if it has record numbers of job openings that it can't fill. The only winners in such an event would be the sanctuary cities that the governor is trying to punish with the busing of migrants to places outside of Texas where they're being received and treated like future economic assets.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright 2003-2022 Capitol Inside