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Promoting EconomicProsperity by Welcoming

Immigrants

RACHEL STEINHARDT

WELCOMING AMERICA

Civic leaders are catching on to

what savvy businesses already

understand: diversity and

immigration are opportunities that

can improve prosperity for all.

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When it comes to running a business, maintaining competitive ad-vantage involves adapting quickly to an increasingly diverse em-ployee and consumer base. In the global economy, attracting the

right talent and reaching todays demographically changing con-sumer market is imperative. With the Hispanic and Asian marketsin the United States expected to reach a combined $2.5 trillion inbuying power by 2015, strategies that welcome newcomers as em-ployees and customers are a recipe or growth or Fortune500 busi-nesses and smaller frms alike.1

A growing number o cities today are working to create a moreimmigrant-riendly culture.2 From Boston to East Providence, romDayton to Salt Lake City, more civic leaders are promoting theircommunities as welcoming places that can attract and retain a glob-al workorce and maximize the local economic development andgrowth opportunities that newcomers bring.

The Business CaseA growing body o research demonstrates how immigrant-riend-ly cities can create positive opportunities or all. Immigrantsrom across the skills spectrum contribute economically and areoten highly sought ater to fll critical gaps in the labor market.3Immigrants are also more likely to start a business than nonim-migrants. Consider a Fiscal Policy Institute report indicating thatsmall businesses owned by immigrants employed an estimated4.7 million people in 2007 and were generating more than $776billion annually.4

Some studies have correlated increased immigration with in-creased earnings o American workers. Other research has docu-

mented immigrants signifcant purchasing power, which trans-lates into more demand or local consumer goods.5 Moreover, byhelping to balance the ratio o workers to retirees, immigrantsgive cities and the nation as a whole a structural advantage overmany trading partners. And immigrants home purchases havehelped boost housing prices.6

Although it is more difcult to quantiy, immigrants alsocontribute to localities through a diversity advantagethe po-tential or greater innovation, creativity, and even cultural renais-sance that results when communities and businesses manage di-versity well.7

Researcher Richard Florida has written about the diversityadvantage, concluding that nations that are more accepting o

and better at integrating new immigrants have a higher level oeconomic growth and development.8 In 2007, the U.S. Congres-sional Budget Ofce calculated that the fscal impact o immi-grants as a whole is positive, with the tax revenues they generateexceeding the cost o the services they use.

Research also has shown that over the last two decades, themetropolitan areas with the astest economic growth were also theplaces with the greatest increase in immigrant share o the labororce.9 Similarly, a study by Global Detroit ound that immigrantsin southeast Michigan provide enormous contributions to the re-gions economic growth.10

A Movement Grows

More cities are seeing immigrants as oering a competitive edge.11Take Dayton, Ohio, which made headlines last year with the release

o its Welcome Dayton plan. Dayton city manager Tim Riordanscomments reect why other cities should take note: Immigrantsare more than twice as likely as other citizens to become entre-preneurs and create jobs. We want to make every eort we can tonot only attract more o these creative and industrious people, butalso to encourage them to stay in our community and plant deeproots.12 Welcome Dayton includes strategies aimed at ostering awelcoming climate and increasing immigrants access to the kinds oservices (banking, English classes, and the like) that can help themcontribute at their ull potential.

Meanwhile in Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announcedplans in 2012 to make Chicago the most immigrant-riendly cityin the world.

Throughout its history, says Adolo Hernandez, director oChicagos Ofce o New Americans, Chicago has benefted romthe immeasurable economic contributions o its immigrant popu-lations, and rom the rich abric o distinct and vibrant neighbor-hoods they helped to create. As we build a thriving 21st centuryeconomy, we must work together to attract and retain immigrantsby helping them to succeed and grow in a sae and welcoming city.

In the Great Lakes region, initiatives such as Global Michi-gan/Global Detroit are working to revitalize the regional economyby making the area more welcoming to immigrants, internationalresidents, oreign trade, and oreign investment. The eort includesprograms to retain international students, microenterprise trainingand lending, a network o immigration and social services, attract-ing oreign investment (or example, through a cultural ambassa-dors program and ramping up investor visas) and the WelcomingMichigan initiative, which promotes understanding between nativeand oreign-born residents.

Says Welcoming Michigan Director Steve Tobocman, I Mich-igan is to compete, we have to welcome the investment, the jobs, the

More civic leaders arepromoting their communities

as welcoming places that

can attract and retain a

global workforce and

maximize economic

development opportunities.

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workers, and the ingenuity o immigrants and reugees. WelcomingMichigan is the oundation o a global economic growth strategy toreturn prosperity to our state.13

Cities such as Houston and Boston have similar initiatives.More recently, Baltimore declared itsel a welcoming city and com-mitted to investing in support or immigrants, while ensuring thatlong-time residents garnered benefts rom new vitality and talent.14Said Mayor Rawlings-Blake, Its about all o us growing and gettingbetter and being successul together.15

Since 2009, the nonproft Welcoming America has been work-ing with a nationwide network o member organizations and part-ners to promote a welcoming atmospherecommunity by com-munityin which immigrants and native-born residents can fndcommon ground and shared prosperity. Welcoming initiatives havebeen launched in 22 states. Welcoming America has worked withgovernment leaders in 11 states to pass or issue Welcoming procla-

mationsormal statements that articulate openness to immigrantsand the need to create a positive climate that benefts the wholecommunity.16 The proclamations are important steps toward creat-ing more actionable and comprehensive welcoming plans.

In New England, where demographics have changed signif-cantly over the past decade and immigrants account or the major-ity o population growth, Welcoming initiatives in Massachusetts,Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Maine are cre-ating a climate that is not only about attracting immigrants, butabout helping them to stay and thrive.17 As Bostons Mayor Meninohas said, It is not enough to just welcome immigrants. We mustmake a collective eort to ensure that immigrants eel welcomed.18

In 2012, governors in Massachusetts and Rhode Island both signedWelcoming proclamations, and resolutions have passed in Boston,East Providence, and other communities in the region.

More than ever, eorts like these are a recognition that ourcommunities are most likely to be economically successul when allmembers are welcomed and supported to oer their potential.

Rachel Steinhardt, the deputy director of Welcoming America, is basedin Decatur, Georgia. Contact her at rachel@welcomingamerica.org. Seealso www.welcomingcities.org.

Endnotes

1 See State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative, 2012,http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/microsites/publicaairs/

StateotheAsianAmericanConsumerReport.pd; and The State of the Asian-

American Consumer, 2012, http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports-

downloads/2012/state-o-the-asian-american-consumer-q3-2012.html.

2 Immigrant reers here to all oreign-born residents o the United States.

3 The Brookings Institution identifes eight industries where immigrants fll critical

gaps. See http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/03/15-immigrant-

workers-singer#2.

4 David Dyssegaard Kallick, Immigrant Small Business Owners: A Signifcant

and Growing Part o the Economy (report, Fiscal Policy Institute, New York

City, June 2012); and U.S. Small Business Administration, Frequently Asked

Questions, http://www.sba.gov/sites/deault/fles/sbaq.pd.

5 Giovanni Peri, The Impact o Immigration on Native Poverty through Labor

Market Competition (National Bureau o Economic Research working paper

no. 17570, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2011); rn B. Bodvarsson, HendrikVan den Berg, and Joshua Lewer, Measuring Immigrations Eects on Labor

Demand: A Reexamination o the Mariel Boatlit, Labour Economics13 (2008):

201245; Francesca Mazzolari and David Neumark, Immigration and Product

Diversity,Journal of Population Economics25, no. 3 (2012): 11071137;

Assessing the Economic Impact o Immigration at the State and Local Level

(report, Immigration Policy Center, Washington, DC, April 13, 2010), http://

www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-acts/assessing-economic-impact-immigration-

state-and-local-level; and Strength in Diversity: The Economic and Political

Power o Immigrants, Latinos, and Asians (report, Immigration Policy Center,

Washington, DC, June 19, 2012), http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-acts/

strength-diversity-economic-and-political-power-immigrants-latinos-and-asians.

6 Gianmarco Ottaviano and Giovanni Peri, Rethinking the Gains rom

Immigration: Theory and Evidence rom the US (Centre or Economic Policy

Research discussion paper no. 5226, 2005); Albert Saiz, Immigration and

Housing Rents in American Cities,Journal of Urban Economics61, no. 2

(2007): 345371; and Dowell Myers, Immigrants Contributions in an Aging

America, Communities & Banking19, no. 3 (summer 2008), http://www.

bostoned.org/commdev/c&b/2008/summer/myers_immigrants_and_boomers.

pd.

7 Quamrul Ashra and Oded Galor, Cultural Diversity, Geographical Isolation,

and the Origin o the Wealth o Nations (Williams College Department o

Economics Working Papers, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 2011); Phil Wood

and Charles Landry, The Intercultural City: Planning for Diversity Advantage

(London: Earthscan, 2007); and G. Pascal Zachary, The Diversity Advantage:

Multicultural Identity in the New World Economy(New York: Basic Books, 2003).

8 Richard Florida, Immigrants and the Wealth o Nations, http://www.

creativeclass.com/_v3/creative_class/2011/04/20/immigrants-and-the-wealth-o-

nations.

9 See http://keystoneresearch.org/sites/deault/fles/

ImmigrantsIn25MetroAreas_20091130.pd.

10 See Overview o Global Detroit Initiative, http://www.globaldetroit.com/wp-

content/fles_m/1327698551Global_Detroit_Study.overview.pd.

11 Dylan Scott, Immigrant-Friendly Cities Want What Arizona Doesnt,

Governing Magazine, September 2012, http://www.governing.com/topics/

economic-dev/gov-immigrant-riendly-cities-want-what-arizona-doesnt.html#.

12 Jill Drury and Tom Biedenharn, Welcome Dayton Immigrant Plan Approved,

WDTN-TV, October 5, 2011, http://www.wdtn.com/dpp/news/local/dayton/

welcome-dayton-immigrant-plan-approved.13 See http://welcomingmichigan.org/.

14 See http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2012/08/can-baltimore-woo-

immigrants-its-inner-city/3009.

15 In Growing Baltimore, Are Immigrants the Key? http://www.npr.

org/2012/08/03/158049388/in-growing-baltimore-are-immigrants-the-key.

16 See http://www.slccouncil.com/agendas/2012Agendas/Dec11/121112B3.pd.

17 See http://www.bos.rb.org/commdev/data-resources/immigration/index.htm;

www.welcomingma.org; www.welcomingri.org; and www.welcomingnh.org.

18 See http://www.cityoboston.gov/newbostonians/; and http://www.orbes.com/

sites/ashoka/2012/06/25/immigration-decision-day-at-the-supreme-court-an-

entrepreneur-responds.

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Bank of Boston. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Bank

or the Federal Reserve System. Copies of articles may be downloaded

without cost at www.bostonfed.org/commdev/c&b/index.htm.