Immigrants and the American Dream
By Ian A. Bowles and Lawrence K. FishWhat’s the American dream? Until last year, that dream for many Bay-Staters was ending an 86-year World Series drought. But for many foreign-born residents, Massachusetts itself is the American dream. In fact, the number of new Americans who have come to live in our state is reaching levels not seen since the 1930s – the heyday of Irish and Italian immigration.
Consider the following: In every decade since the 1970s, Massachusetts’s population would have shrunk were it not for international immigration. Why do we care? Simply put, businesses need employees in order to grow and expand – tight labor markets drive up costs and limit our state’s competitiveness. In the 1990s, our labor force grew at the fifth-slowest rate in the nation – and since 2000, it has grown by less than one percent.
This leads us to the importance of our state’s current immigration boom. The Changing Face of Massachusetts, a recent study by MassINC and the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University and sponsored by a group of leading businesses and foundations, including Citizens Bank, shows that the share of immigrants in our workforce has nearly doubled since 1980, to 17 percent.
Our new immigrant population has changed the faces of our cities and towns, creating more diverse and vibrant communities. Of the 137,000 immigrants arriving in the last four years, the top five countries of origin are Brazil, El Salvador, India, Japan and Haiti.
Immigrants work in all sectors of our economy, including many leading industries. The most successful growth sectors of that economy – life sciences, health care, and software – have prospered, in part, because of the immigrant workforce.
This new wave of immigration is an opportunity, for the state and for the economy. These new Americans bring with them energy, ambition, and entrepreneurship. And they’re bringing these qualities to Massachusetts. There are many states and metropolitan areas that would be happy to get this infusion of new blood – consider St. Louis, Baltimore and Pittsburgh, which each lost roughly 10% of their total population in the 1990s.
At the same time, our economy has changed. Largely gone are the manufacturing jobs that were once the gateway to the middle class for newcomers. Today’s Massachusetts economy puts a premium on skills. At a minimum, all workers need basic skills, and most jobs that pay a middle-class wage require at least some college education.
Happily, a higher percentage of foreign-born workers here have at least master’s degrees than do our native-born population. But an increasing number of immigrants also face a skills challenge. Indeed, our research shows that, while more than three-quarters of immigrants report speaking English well, the number of immigrants in Massachusetts with limited English language skills has increased from 18 percent in 1980 to 22 percent in 2000.
We need to recognize the important contribution of those immigrants who speak English in addition to their native language. For example, employees at Citizens Bank speak at least 75 different languages among them, allowing us to fully represent the rich diversity of the communities that Citizens serves.
At the same time, the number of immigrants in Massachusetts with limited English language skills is rising, and many adult immigrants are not prepared for the knowledge economy because they lack a high school diploma or have limited English-speaking skills.
We all share in the opportunity – and the responsibility – to embrace this community of new Bay Staters, to work with them to upgrade their skills and help enhance their opportunity to live the American Dream. It is clear that immigrants want to learn English. But the waiting list for publicly funded English classes is 20,000 and growing, and we all need to do our part.
Foundations can fund programs to help immigrants learn English, especially programs linked to workplace skills. Community organizations, church groups and schools can create stronger partnerships to support English language learning. Workforce training programs can work more closely with immigrant organizations. Public dollars can be targeted to high-demand communities and used to leverage additional private investment.
Like all residents of Massachusetts, immigrants need an opportunity to develop the skills that will help them succeed. And if these newcomers succeed, we all succeed. That’s a trend that began when the first new Americans stepped off the Mayflower in 1620.
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Ian A. Bowles is President & CEO of MassINC and Publisher of CommonWealth magazine. Lawrence K. Fish is Chairman, President & CEO of Citizens Financial Group, Inc.
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