U.S. Immigration Could Spell Big Business

The largest immigration boom in U.S. history is expected to lift earnings at companies from discount retailers to telecommunications providers, putting dollar signs in the eyes of investors looking to cash in on the wave of newcomers, mostly from Latin America and Asia. Demographics is "one of the top five tools any macro analyst and investment manager should be following," said Robert Justich, senior managing director at Bear Stearns Asset Management. "And there has been no bigger demographic change than today's migration." The future looks promising. "If you are forecasting into the next two decades, you are looking at an economy with tremendous opportunities in the realm of immigrant-related activity," said Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, co-director of immigration studies at New York University. "Never have so many highly educated and highly skilled (people) come into the immigration flow." The last big wave in immigration, from 1900 to 1910, was driven by Europeans. Although slightly higher on a percentage basis, the number of immigrants in the United States then was less than half of what it is today, according to the Center for Immigration Studies based in Washington D.C. Census data from 2003 show nearly 12 percent of the U.S. population, or about 33.5 million people, are foreign-born, and demographers see an increase in coming years with both legal and illegal immigrants coming to the U.S. seeking greater economic opportunity or religious and political freedom. The recent wave is more diverse in terms of countries of origin -- from Mexico to India -- and educational levels, said Suarez-Orozco.  [more]