With an aging population and a decline in U.S.-born workers, Pennsylvania will soon need a new workforce to maintain its economic health.
Immigrants play a vital role in meeting these needs, according to a recent report from workforce development nonprofit Upwardly Global and the American Immigration Council.
The report analyzes 2022 data across multiple states in the Great Lakes region and finds that immigrants make significant contributions to the revitalization of states like Pennsylvania and are essential to the region’s recovery and long-term economic growth. We concluded that there is a possibility. And local advocates say immigrants already play a big role in Pittsburgh’s economy.
“There’s real promise that immigration brings,” Carrie Harris, CEO of the education nonprofit Literacy Pittsburgh, told Technical.ly. That promise is a young, diverse workforce that can fill gaps in Pittsburgh’s economy, Harris said.
Between 2010 and 2022, the share of immigrants in Pennsylvania’s population increased by 35%. This means that from one in 17 residents being an immigrant to one in 13 residents.
This increase in immigrant residents contributed to a 2% increase in Pennsylvania’s population, which is approximately 12 million people. Without this increase, Pennsylvania’s total population would have declined, according to the Upwardly Global report.
With this increase, immigrants now contribute $4.4 billion in state and local taxes and have $34.2 billion in purchasing power. The significant contributions don’t stop there, the report details, with many people starting their own businesses, filling labor shortages and revitalizing vacant land.
Taken together, it provides a huge boost not only to economic development but also to entrepreneurship. Immigration can be a powerful force in the region, said Monica Ruiz, executive director of Casa San Jose, a nonprofit resource center serving Pittsburgh’s Latino immigrant community.
“For Pittsburgh to reach its full potential, we need more immigrants than we currently have,” Lewis told Technical.ly.
Immigrants start businesses and promote local entrepreneurship
Immigrant residents can have a significant impact on the economy, as new businesses are a major driver of job growth, and immigrant entrepreneurship rates are much higher than the U.S. population as a whole.
According to the American Immigration Council, there were more than 3,700 immigrant entrepreneurs in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Immigrants were 26% more likely to become entrepreneurs than U.S.-born residents.
Across the Great Lakes region, 13% of entrepreneurs are immigrants, and they generate $9.7 billion for the regional economy, according to Upwardly Global.
“Just as immigrants drove significant innovation and community growth in the early 20th century, immigrants and refugees today are leveraging their skills and talents to help nations adapt to change. ”
For example, Beachview in Pittsburgh, home to Casa San Jose, has seen an explosion of new business over the past decade, and immigrants are grateful, Lewis said.
However, the economic impact is only part of the story. Immigrants also build strong cultural communities.
When immigrants resettle in a new country, they identify what their community needs and work to fill the gaps, said Becky Johnson, director of career services at Jewish Family and Community Services (JFCS) in Pittsburgh. He says,
“The reason this is so important is because they help start businesses, pay taxes and bring textiles into the local economy, but they also provide cultural competency and language support for community members. Because we can do that with a focus on,” Johnson said. .
Increase personnel to rebuild manufacturing industry
The Great Lakes region was once a center for steel, automobile, and rubber manufacturing, but the nature of these jobs is changing.
Immigrants are often employed in hard-to-fill factory jobs in the region, accounting for 42% of meat processing jobs and 31% of manual labor jobs, according to the Upwardly Global report. In Pittsburgh, factory jobs are an important part of the local economy.
Immigrants also play a major role in the medical field. This means they can have a significant impact in Pittsburgh, which has a 76% concentration of healthcare jobs compared to the national average.
Across Pennsylvania, about 50% of the state’s counties are seeing increased immigration to fill a shortage of health care workers. In Pennsylvania, about 25% of doctors and 7% of nurses are immigrants, according to data from the American Immigration Council.
As a result, immigrants now make up 9.7% of Pennsylvania’s workforce, according to the American Immigration Council.
In Pittsburgh, Johnson said JFCS has had great success in connecting immigrants and refugees to these industries, especially as the city’s demand for health care workers increases.
Immigrant advocacy groups are also noticing these ongoing industry trends and adding services to meet current demands. Examples include the expansion of talent programming and English language education in Pittsburgh Literacy and the multi-million dollar expansion of the community center at Casa San Jose.
Employment disadvantage reduces economic impact
Pittsburgh is an attractive choice for immigrants due to its relatively affordable housing prices, proximity to economic opportunities, and designation as a Certified Welcoming City. But immigration advocates say barriers persist, making it difficult for some people to achieve economic security.
Pittsburgh remains a “very Anglo-centric” city, Harris said. This can be a problem for immigrants seeking access to resources that are only available in English rather than their native language.
Approximately 14% of Pittsburgh’s immigrant population has limited English proficiency, according to data from the American Immigration Council.
Pittsburgh literacy instructor Shirley Lykaczewski teaches English to adult students at McIntyre Elementary School (Courtesy of Literacy Pittsburgh)
Additionally, even highly educated immigrants may have difficulty finding work. Two million college-educated immigrants and refugees remain unemployed or underemployed in the United States, according to a 2021 study by the Migration Policy Institute.
Part of the reason, Harris said, is that recertification, which immigrants may have to go through to verify and renew their occupational licenses, can be a particularly difficult process. .
“We have a lot of new people who might have been doctors or nurses,” Harris said. “Maybe you’re a teacher in your home country, but it’s not easy to re-qualify in this country.”
Additionally, if immigrants are asked for educational certificates, it can be nearly impossible to obtain them. For example, Johnson said he is aware of employers requiring high school transcripts from refugees from war-torn countries.
“Their high school no longer exists and copies of their transcripts are not available, so they are locked out of working for certain employers,” she said.
Helping to reduce these barriers is educating human resources professionals and employers who may be misinformed about documentation and how to legally hire immigrant residents, also noted by Johnson. Johnson said it’s a key element of his job.
And, of course, prejudice against immigrants persists, but is improving, advocates said.
“Within the last 10 years… [Pittsburgh’s] The demographics are changing,” Lewis said. “Some people welcome that idea more than others. I think we’re now seeing a lot of people start to embrace that change.”
This article, and all of Technical.ly’s immigration reports, are made possible by the WES Mariam Assefa Foundation.
The WES Mariam Assefa Fund supports catalytic efforts to build a more inclusive economy for immigrants and refugees in the United States and Canada. We work closely with organizations and leaders focused on ensuring more equitable access to opportunity and wealth.
