A group of business leaders who are also first and second-generation immigrants gathered in Wilmington Wednesday to discuss the positive impact working immigrants have on Delaware’s economy.
A new report released from the Partnership for a New American Economy highlighted the economic benefits of contributing, immigrants: who are 36.2% more likely to be employed than native-born Delawareans.
The study describes how immigrants contribute financially in sectors such as the housing market and healthcare - as well as to the state’s income and tax base and more.
Delaware is in the national top ten for foreign born population growth between 2010 and 2014. The First State is home today to almost 80,000 immigrants.
Bryant Garcia is an Immigration Specialist for La Esperanza, a non-profit that helps immigrants find the support and resources they need to better assimilate into the U.S.
He says much of Delaware’s recent immigration growth is from Central American countries like Guatemala - along with Mexico and Haiti. Many come to work in agriculture and on chicken farms – but wind up doing more.
“Another thing that we’ve seen is that we’ve seen a lot of those families start their own businesses," Garcia said. "There’s a lot of restaurants, there’s a lot of stores…people open up laundromats, a lot of different things especially in that Georgetown area. You go and walk around and you’ll see a lot of businesses owned by immigrants from that Central American or Mexican background.”
Garcia hopes the study helps reduce a certain stigma that immigrants don’t contribute financially – or socially - to society.
“Some have this misconception of saying immigrants just want to come in here and take, and they don’t contribute anything to the United States and that’s absolutely not true," he said. "A lot of them do come here seeking work. They want to work; they don’t want to depend on anyone. They want to be self-sufficient. They want just the same opportunities we do to be self-sufficient, to make sure their family is well off.”
Robert Herrera is Co-Founder of The Mill Space in Wilmington, where business leaders gathered Wednesday.
Herrera - whose father emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico - hopes his recently launched creative working space for area professionals will continue to grow in its ethnic diversity, and help support innovation of immigrant entrepreneurs.
“It’s opened all walks of life and we’re seeing a nice diversity of people coming through the doors," Herrera said. "It’s a wide range of immigrants from all over the world, we have people representing Ireland, Mexico a lot of south and central Americans and I see that number only growing over the next few years.”
