(MENAFN- Live Mint) "“Xenophobia” from China to Japan and India is stopping their growth, US President Joe Biden argued that migration has been good for the US economy. The remarks came while addressing the Washington fundraising event for his 2024 re-elections campaign and marking the start of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
“One of the reasons why our economy's growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants,\" Biden said as quoted by newswire Reuters.
“Why is China stalling so badly economically, why is Japan having trouble, why is Russia, why is India, because they're xenophobic. They don't want immigrants. Immigrants are what makes us strong,” the US President said.
Last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted that each country would see its growth decelerate in 2024 from the previous year, ranging from 0.9% in highly developed Japan to 6.8% in emerging India.
They predicted that the US would increase by 2.7%, which is a little faster growth rate than the 2.5% recorded the previous year. Many economists attributed better-than-expected performance to immigrants increasing the size of the labor force in the nation 2024 US presidential elections scheduled in November this year, many American voters now rank concern over irregular migration as their top concern, who has denounced the anti-immigrant rhetoric of his Republican opponent Donald Trump, has pushed to cultivate wide-ranging political and economic ties with nations like Japan and India in an effort to fight China and Russia on a global scale.
The number of foreigners resident in Japan rose to a record high of 3.4 million in December 2023, up 10% on the previous year and representing about 2.7% of the population of about 124 million, as per Bloomberg reports.
A survey by Japan's Asahi newspaper published last month found 62% of respondents said more foreign workers should be accepted, compared with 44% in a similar poll in 2018.
(With inputs from agencies)
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