The Gifts of Iowa Migrations

by Jeremy Everett

July 1, 2026

Iowa has a proud history of using butter as a sculpting medium and, more importantly, for feeding millions of people around the world. Iowa uses every inch of land available to us for planting, maintaining, harvesting, and selling food – over thirty million acres according to the Iowa Farm Bureau. The state of Iowa has become synonymous with corn and farming in general. We have thrown it on our “Welcome to Iowa” signs, and we proudly defend our values against the heathens who mistake us for Idaho or Ohio. Agriculture is ingrained in the identity of every Iowan, even those who have recently called Iowa home.

Let’s take a closer look at the agriculture industry in Iowa specifically through the lens of immigration. According to the University of Arkansas’s Division of Agriculture, Iowa produced $46.6 billion agricultural cash receipts - or 12.6% of Iowa’s gross domestic product (GDP) - in 2022. It is no secret that this industry depends on an expansive workforce to do that planting, maintenance, harvesting, and selling. The U.S. Department of Agriculture shares that nearly 30% of all agricultural workers in Iowa are foreign born with over 50% of meat processing jobs filled by migrant populations, such as refugees and those on humanitarian parole (Economic Policy Institute, Iowa Department of Agriculture.) The Migration Policy Institute has calculated that 6% of Iowa’s total workforce are foreign born. To summarize, those 6% of migrant workers comprise 30-50% of the blue-collar workforce of the industry that is the pride of Iowa.

When we review the economic contributions of this extremely diverse workforce, we see that migrants living in Iowa in 2018 were responsible for over $421 million in state tax revenue and paid over $741 million in federal taxes (New American Economy). Hardly the burden on the system insider politicians like to claim. Iowa has seen a shift in our population in recent decades. Between 2010 and 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau data highlights a 14% growth in immigrant populations, especially in rural areas. Iowa State University research, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Des Moines Register confirm that 50% of new residents in rural Iowa are immigrants and these immigrants are pursing job vacancies in the agricultural industry. Simply put, immigrants are saving small town Iowa and our agricultural industry. Wait! In the distance… A voice… I hear it coming… “They are taking good paying American jobs! They are a burden on the system! And what about crime!?” Well, let us dive a little deeper into these claims. I will tackle the common arguments we hear in sections:

1)      Immigrants are “taking” jobs away from those born here.

2)      These are the good paying American jobs.

3)      Immigrants are a burden on social welfare systems, like food stamps and Medicaid.

4)      Immigrants increase crime or contribute to criminality disproportionately than those born here.

1) Immigrants are taking jobs away from those born here.

Companies are recruiting migrants specifically to work in their facilities. Tyson, JBS, and other larger corporations target immigrant populations due to the benefits immigrants bring to their companies. They placed bets on how many would die, so I am by no means saying these are great companies with the greatest people. I am simply saying that these companies bring folks here because they see the economic benefits of immigrant populations. Additionally, these positions are often extremely dirty, bloody (literally), repetitive, and can lead to life-altering injuries and even death. Immigrants built America and still are doing so, because so many of them are good, hardworking parents who want to see their children live happy, healthy, and wealthy lives. If you have a problem with immigrants “taking” your job, consider this: employees do not really choose where they work, the companies choose who to hire as employees. If you are wondering, why a company solely driven by profit chose an immigrant over you… It says more about you than it does the immigrant.

2) These are good paying American jobs.

Cumulative data in 2025 from Indeed, Zip Recruiter, and the USDA Farm Labor Report state the average pay for farm workers is $16 per hour with a range of $14 to $20.73 per hour. Salary averages are less than $50,000. Do not get me wrong, I would love it if more people made this kind of money, but we must be realistic about some of the claims we hear on social media and in political conversations. There are no extra cars or wild vacations. These dirty jobs barely cover rent and groceries in today’s economy. Also, did you know that immigrants are twice as likely to start a small business than those of us born here? In fact, according to the American Immigration Council, in 2019 there were 6,300 small businesses in Iowa ran/managed by immigrants which helped produce a whopping $2.1 billion in spending power for immigrant populations. Over $2 billion earned by immigrants in Iowa was spent at grocery stores, gas stations, childcare centers, local restaurants, car dealerships and more – and remember, many live in rural areas. Immigrants are not taking American jobs; they are creating jobs in America and spending that money on American business, especially in rural areas.

3)      Immigrants are a burden on social welfare systems, like food stamps and Medicaid.

First, we need to understand how these benefits work. U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents qualify for benefits. Undocumented immigrants, international students, and other visa holders do not qualify for these benefits. The applications to enroll in benefits are thirty pages long and require extensive documentation, background checks, and several layers of review to be approved. This is not a system easily duped or taken advantage of.

SNAP: Over 260,000 Iowans received Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits or “food stamps” for us poor 1990’s kids, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees the program. The total spent, according to the USDA, is nearly $534 million in Iowa alone. The same department says approximately 4,000 refugees and asylees in Iowa receive SNAP benefits. 98.5% of those receiving SNAP benefits were born and raised here. Of these, every single person has been vetted and screened for both legal status, income, residency, accumulated assets, and other qualifications. The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services confirms these numbers. If we take the total refugees and immigrants receiving SNAP (1.5%) of total spent in Iowa ($534 million) we get $8.01 million. In 2022, the total tax contribution of immigrants in Iowa was $418.6 million, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Now remember, those with undocumented status do not receive any benefits whether it is SNAP or Medicaid or anything else, but they do pay into the system in many cases. The fact is immigrants pay much more in taxes than they receive in benefits, meaning without immigrants, the benefits native-born populations would receive would decrease, not increase. I would argue that the bigger problem is that 260,000 Iowans, mostly children and elderly, are struggling to afford enough food given the wealth of this state and this country. That is what we ought to be most upset about.

MEDICAID: The state of Iowa has published that 700,000 Iowans receive Medicaid benefits. That means over 1 in 5 Iowans cannot afford medical care. The U.S. Department of Justice has 55,000 legal permanent residents living in Iowa as of 2019. Remember, legal residents are not U.S. citizens but are in the U.S. legally and therefore qualify for Medicaid benefits. This means less than 8% of the nearly 700,000 on Medicaid in Iowa could possibly be receiving benefits. That 8% figure is if every legal permanent resident in Iowa was on Medicaid, which they are not. In terms of the total population of Iowa, we are looking at less than 2% of the entire population who could possibly – at most – be receiving Medicaid benefits. I would mention the math again, but I almost fell asleep typing it… I have no idea how you made it through reading it.

****    We are ignoring the moral, ethical, and spiritual arguments for why we should feed the hungry, tend to the ill, and empower the poor. Personally, I have a “two-coat” policy inspired by my Catholic upbringing that is essentially: if I have two coats in winter and the person next to me does not have a coat, I am obliged to give them one of my two coats. I digress. When we have more than we need, we share with those in need. Moving on!

4)      Immigrants increase crime or contribute to criminality disproportionately than those born here.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation lists Iowa as 15^th lowest in crime nationally. In 2000, Iowa's violent crime rate was 310 per 100,000 residents (.31%) and its property crime rate was 3,315 per 100,000 (3.31%). By 2024, the violent crime rate dropped to 243 per 100,000 (.24%), and the property crime rate was 1,297 per 100,000 (1.29%) (Iowa Legislature). There has been a 90% increase in immigrant populations in Iowa in that same period, which is a correlation, not causation, however, the Storm Lake Police Chief in 2018, Mark Prosser, stated the increase in immigration in town led to a decrease in crime. Sources confirming this correlation include the Iowa Legislature, National Immigration Forum, and American Immigration Council as well as several national studies indicating there is no relationship between increased immigration and increase in crime. Let me say that more clearly: In Iowa, there is a correlation between an increase in immigration and a decrease in crime. There is ample evidence to support the argument immigrants decrease crime rates in Iowa; on the other hand, there is no evidence to support the argument that immigrants increase crime rates in Iowa. Honestly, there are too many variables to directly tie an increase in immigration to decreases or increases in crime, but criminologists have coined the phrase “the immigration effect” when studying crime in America (American Sociological Association). That effect? The more immigrants that move in, the lower the crime rates in that neighborhood become.

Conclusion

Listen, I have spent over 10 years of my life working with immigrants and refugees in Iowa and Colorado. I have tried to ease a mother’s pain whose son died by suicide the night before, and I have helped a family cope with the murder of a loved one by gang violence. I spent six years in college and often learn life-changing lessons from people with no more than a third-grade education. I have seen parents devote their lives to their kids and seen kids devote their future to their parents. These are not uniquely American experiences, nor are they unique to immigrants. These are simply human experiences. The people who create and spread hateful rhetoric around refugees and immigrants know many of the facts I have written about. Most of the hardcore biased people in America today are remarkably familiar with the above facts, but they have chosen to sideline these facts not out of ignorance but out of malice.

To dehumanize a person, like referring to immigrants as cockroaches as my grandmother did, or to use extremely hateful language like my father used when I was a child, is to begin justifying one’s moral, ethical, and cognitive failures. Morally, you have failed to uphold the (often Christian) values that you say you believe. You have failed to uphold the social norms of decency, respect, and compassion that a functioning society requires, and you have chosen cognitive dissonance over common sense. I am not saying Democrats or liberals have the highroad in all the issues, nor do I believe my stances on these issues are infallible.

The fact that I had to write something focusing on the “economic” argument instead of the moral or “emotional” argument is already a significant compromise for me. I can cite all the facts in the world to support my argument and invalidate my opponents, but we are talking about moms, dads, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nurses, doctors, teachers, friends, and lovers. We cannot talk about issues solely in terms of numbers and data because that, in a big way, is also dehumanizing. I believe anyone willing to struggle to achieve the American Dream should be afforded the opportunity to do so, and those of us Iowans who take pride in our name and our culture ought to welcome those who wish to do the same.

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