Report: Trump's immigration crackdown will harm Mass. labor force

The Trump administration's immigration policies are going to be a drag on the Massachusetts economy, which counts on thousands of new arrivals to the country each year just to maintain the labor force, a new report finds.

Immigrants make up nearly a quarter of the state's work force and have an outsized role in higher education, universities, hospitals and the life sciences industry, according to a report by Boston Indicators, an arm of the Boston Foundation, and the MassINC Policy Center.

Massachusetts needs at least 60,000 immigrants annually to sustain the labor force at its current size, according to the report. It also counts heavily on international students coming here to study and on workers in the construction field.

"One key headline in Massachusetts and in Greater Boston is that housing supply is limited, and now our construction industry stands at a crossroads," said Kimberly Goulart, senior research analyst at Boston Indicators, in an interview with WBUR. "How do they meet this demand when their exact workers who need to build these houses are being scared off by the administration?"

Immigrants play essential roles across all sectors, according to the report, from research laboratories and universities to hospitals, construction sites, restaurants, waste management, transportation and small businesses. The Migration Policy Institute estimates about 357,000 workers in the state lack legal status.

And while there's a lag in the data, the Census Bureau estimates net migration could fall 90% from the July 2024 peak to July this year, the report says.

Nearly one-third of immigrants in the state labor force have a master’s degree or more, compared to about one-fifth of native-born residents.

Foreign-born heads of households in Massachusetts had an estimated $50 billion in spending power in 2024, according to Goulart. Those households also contributed about $7.4 billion in state and local taxes and more than $23 billion in federal taxes, she said.

International students contribute more than $5 billion to the state economy, according to the report.

“This report illustrates in stark terms how policies to shut down or restrict immigration pathways will have significant negative impact for our overall population and labor force in Massachusetts," said Lee Pelton, chief executive of the Boston Foundation.

About 20,000 working-aged residents leave Massachusetts each year. And 9,000 more people retire than enter the work force each year. Immigration is needed to offset those two losses, the report found.

In addition, Massachusetts has the second lowest native-born birth rate in the country, at 40 births per 1,000 women. Only Vermont is lower.

"Without these newcomers, Massachusetts will face not only slower population growth, but an outright contraction in the number of working-age residents available to support the broader economy," the report says.