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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

New report highlights the benefits of immigration

Minnesota business leaders worried immigration crackdown will hurt the economy

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 2/28/17

REGIONAL— Recent immigrants now make up eight percent of Minnesota’s population and contribute billions of dollars annually in state and local taxes and spending with the Minnesota businesses. …

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New report highlights the benefits of immigration

Minnesota business leaders worried immigration crackdown will hurt the economy

Posted

REGIONAL— Recent immigrants now make up eight percent of Minnesota’s population and contribute billions of dollars annually in state and local taxes and spending with the Minnesota businesses. They also own and operate over 16,000 businesses of their own in the state, employing a total of 53,000 Minnesotans in the process.

Those are just some of the highlights of new research on the effect of immigration on Minnesota, released late last week by state business leaders, including the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. The new data, produced by the group New American Century and the Minnesota Business Immigration Coalition, marks the launch of Map the Impact, a campaign to highlight the economic power of immigrants in communities across the country. The campaign is focused on advancing comprehensive immigration reform

Minnesota business leaders today showcased new research on the contributions of immigrants in Minnesota and highlighted the critical need for immigration reform. Spearheaded by New American Economy and the Minnesota Business Immigration Coalition, the report marks the launch of Map the Impact – a campaign to highlight the power of immigrants in communities across the country.

“The research underscores once again that we must welcome immigrants if Minnesota’s economy is to continue to develop and grow,” said Bill Blazar, Minnesota Chamber senior vice president of public affairs and business development. The Minnesota Chamber leads the Minnesota Business Immigration Coalition. “Our current immigration system is broken from top to bottom, and we are relying on outdated laws that do not addresses the challenges we face today. This new research proves what we’ve known for years –that immigrants are a boon to our state’s economy.”

According to the report:

‰Nearly 440,000 foreign-born residents make up 8 percent of the population.

‰Immigrants paid $3.3 billion in state and local taxes and held $8.9 billion in spending power in 2014.

‰ Immigrant entrepreneurs number almost 16,250.

‰Nearly 53,000 people are employed at immigrant-owned firms.

The map, found at http://www.newamericaneconomy.org/locations, provides information on immigrants by congressional district. Not surprisingly, the map shows a sharp divide in Minnesota in terms of the percentage of immigrants in the population and their impact on the tax base and economy. The vast majority of immigrants in Minnesota live in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, where they contribute nearly $3 billion to the state’s tax coffers and nearly $6 billion in purchasing power. Immigrants also operate more than 5,000 businesses in the metro region, employing tens of thousands of workers.

By contrast, the Eighth District in northeastern Minnesota has experienced a relatively minor impact from immigrants, with just over 10,000 recent immigrants living across the sprawling region, which stretches from the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities to the Canadian border.

Of the 435 congressional districts nationwide, Minnesota’s Eighth ranks 429th in terms of the share of its population, just 1.6 percent, comprised of recent immigrants. Even so, the research found that recent immigrants operate 307 businesses in the Eighth District, paid $66.8 million in taxes in 2014, and had spending power of $182 million in the local economy.

Many recent immigrants in the Eighth District and elsewhere are employed in the service sector, like the hospitality industry, which was affected by the Day Without Immigrants work stoppage on Feb. 16.

“As we learned recently, our state’s hospitality industry cannot function fully without the contributions of immigrant workers,” said Dan McElroy, president and chief executive officer of Hospitality Minnesota. “Minnesota’s welcome mat is not what it needs to be without fully and expertly staffed restaurants, hotels and resorts. That requires an immigration system that’s in sync with our economy.”

The impact of immigrants is more pronounced in western Minnesota’s Seventh District, where agriculture is more dominant. “Whether it’s on the farm, in agribusiness or food processing, immigrants play an important role in Minnesota agriculture,” said Perry Aasness, executive director of the Minnesota AgriGrowth Council.