March 28, 2025 12:32PM # Immigration Benefits the Destination Country By [Jeffrey Miron](https://www.cato.org/people/jeffrey-miron) and Jacob Winter --- SHARE Listen to this article Generated with [ ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io/) AI technology. Loading the [Elevenlabs Text to Speech](https://elevenlabs.io/text-to-speech) AudioNative Player... ![Detail Of A United States Of America Work Visa](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/2024-07/visa-immigration-ar23.jpg?itok=PqCzT2Pm) Debates about immigration often emphasize the alleged harms. President Trump, for example, has [claimed](https://www.c-span.org/clip/campaign-2024/trump-on-illegal-immigrants-theyre-taking-your-jobs/5133406) that illegal immigrants take jobs from native-born Americans, a belief that is fueling his [crackdown](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/thousands-agents-diverted-trump-immigration-crackdown-2025-03-22/). Research finds, however, that immigration has large [benefits](https://www.cato.org/testimony/unlocking-americas-potential-how-immigration-fuels-economic-growth-our-competitive) for the destination country. For example, a recent study of agricultural immigration to Brazil ([Cato Research Brief no. 426](https://www.cato.org/research-briefs-economic-policy/effects-immigration-brazil)) finds that > municipalities with a higher population share of European immigrants in 1920 had greater farm values per hectare, suggesting greater development of the agricultural sector.… This effect existed for total farm value and each of its three components—land, infrastructure, and tools and machines. The authors investigated the reasons and discovered that > \[a\] greater share of European immigrants in a municipality led to a higher proportion of its farmland being cultivated rather than left fallow or as forest. Finally, the authors explored the effects of immigration on Brazil’s transformation from an agricultural economy and found that > immigration did not slow Brazil’s structural transformation—it may have accelerated it. Immigration reduced the agricultural share of Brazil’s labor force and increased the literacy of native and foreign-born individuals. Furthermore, our study finds evidence that immigration increased industrial employment. Immigration debates should recognize that immigrants grow a country’s economy, which benefits all residents. *This article appeared on* [*Substack*](https://jeffreymiron.substack.com/) *on March 28, 2025.* ##### Related Tags [Defending Globalization](https://www.cato.org/defending-globalization), [Immigration](https://www.cato.org/immigration) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).