Center for Immigration Studies
Innovative Pastor Helps Refugees Help the U.S. Economy
This year, former pastor Leah Lonsbury opened Just Bakery, an Atlanta nonprofit that provides job training, food service certification, and a living wage for resettled refugees. Lonsbury isn’t the first to turn to baking to make change. She used to live in Madison, Wisconsin, where a good friend runs… Read More
After Seven Generations, NC Farm Crippled by Migrant Labor Shortage
Kirby Johnson’s family has been farming in Henderson County, in southwest North Carolina, for seven generations. “All I’ve ever done is farm, and my daddy before me, and my grandfather before him,” he says. In addition to running his own 600-acre farm, Johnson helps manage another of… Read More
U.S. Lacks Computer Workers to Help Entrepreneur Expand U.S. Business
When Indian immigrant Sameer Penakalapati started Avani Technology Solutions in 2010, the Rochester-based business had two employees and revenues of $300,000. Since then, the company, which provides information technology services, has soared. It now has $50 million in annual revenue and 520 American employees in eight cities across the country. Read More
PGH City Paper: Immigrants are propping up the Pittsburgh metro area population
Without an influx of international migration to the Pittsburgh metro area, the region would have lost 36,580 residents since 2010. This would have been far and away the largest population decline of any large U.S. metro area over that time span. Luckily, enough people came across borders to the Steel… Read More
Head of Hispanic Leadership Council Makes Economic Case for Reform
Greg Torrales first moved to South Carolina in 2007 to work as a translator and help immigrants navigate the healthcare industry. Today he is the director of the South Carolina Hispanic Leadership Council (SCHLC), which provides social services for the state’s Hispanic residents. “Before I moved to South Carolina, I… Read More
The Detroit News: Opinion: Immigrants revitalize Detroit
Immigration has been quietly powering the population growth, neighborhood revitalization, innovation, entrepreneurship, and broad diversity upon which a bright future for Detroit’s neighborhoods and current residents can be secured. New data released this week by the New American Economy, a collection of more than 500 Republican, Democratic, and independent mayors… Read More
New Americans in Detroit
While recent Census reports show continued population loss for the city, an NAE & Global Detroit report highlights that immigrants, who have added over 4,000 new residents to the city between 2010 and 2014 (a 12.1 percent rate of growth), are helping the city to stop its… Read More
AL.com: Immigrants contribute $3B to Birmingham metro area’s GDP: Report
A new report has found that immigrants contributed $3 billion to the Birmingham metro area’s GDP in 2014. Foreign-born people also constituted outsize percentages of the metro area’s employed workforce, ranks of business owners and population of people with advanced degrees, according to the study. Many immigrants across Alabama and the… Read More
Crain’s Detroit Business: Report highlights immigrants’ economic contribution to Detroit
Following the uproar over President Donald Trump’s now-stalled executive order on limiting immigration from certain Middle East nations, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan reaffirmed the city’s commitment to immigrants. New data released Tuesday makes the case for why. While the city continued to lose native-born residents between 2010 and 2014, its… Read More
Without a Reliable Supply of Migrant Workers, Landscaper Can’t Grow
In 2016, Faulkner’s Landscaping and Nursery, in Hooksett, New Hampshire, hit a record high: $2.1 million in revenues. In 2017, with even more commercial patios, greenery, and waterfalls to install, that number should have gone up. Instead, it plummeted by $500,000, thanks to a new government policy that prevented owner… Read More
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