Cities Develop Immigrant Attraction Plans to Fuel Economic Growth

As federal immigration reform remains in gridlock, cities are leading a charge to make America more welcoming to immigrants. Driven by the potential economic growth, mayors and regional economic development organizations are moving ahead with the creation of new initiatives and entities to attract and retain high-skilled immigrants. For mid-sized, and even larger cities, high-skilled immigrants are viewed as untapped, potential tech entrepreneurs who in the past have been drawn to Silicon Valley and other tech hubs.

At the forefront of this movement are cities that previously encompassed the Rust Belt of America. In June, representatives from several former Rust Belt cities met in Detroit at the first annual Global Great Lakes Network conference to share best practices among immigrant economic development initiatives across the Midwest and beyond. The recently established network of cities — Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Dayton, Columbus, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Lansing — is intended to enhance regional efforts to attract, welcome and retain immigrants, new Americans and other newcomers.

According to a 2012 report from the Brookings Institution, several of these cities including Pittsburgh, Detroit, Columbus, St. Louis already are among the nation’s most successful regions in attracting and retaining high-skilled immigrants driven by thriving tech communities and large universities. These cities are characterized by vibrant immigrant communities that are predominately comprised of educated workers (individuals who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher).  Global Detroit, a regional economic development initiative, released a new report that highlighted the importance of immigration on the demographic and economic makeup of the Detroit metro.

Dayton, Indianapolis and Lansing, however, are not performing as well as other metros in the region. According to Brookings’ research, Dayton and Lansing are characterized by low immigrant population that also is mostly comprised of low-skilled workers. Although Indianapolis has a balance of low-skilled and high-skilled workers, it still suffers from a low immigrant population. To address this issue in Dayton, the Welcome Dayton initiative is intended to support the attraction and integration of immigrants to the metro, especially high-skilled tech workers.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel also has placed a significant emphasize on the attraction of immigrants to his city. In 2011, the mayor announced the creation of the Office of New Americans -- an office dedicated to improving services and engaging Chicago's global immigrant communities, increasing immigrant entrepreneurship, making Chicago more globally competitive and spurring economic growth. During a webinar, Adolfo Hernandez, Director of Chicago’s Office of New Americans, discussed the 27 initiatives that comprise the city’s plan. Many of these are intended to support small-business development, entrepreneurship, skills-training and educational achievement.