GLI, city see need to welcome immigrants
Greater Louisville is showing progress on many key measures of urban growth. To sustain this growth, we must attract talented people to our region with the skills, education, knowledge, training and drive to power local businesses and start more new companies. Part of our talent solution is welcoming immigrants.
Most of our net population growth over the past five years came from international migration. Without immigrants, we’d have a net loss of 7,800; thanks to immigrants, we gained 6,370. This significantly impacts our workforce, business development, education, neighborhood development and tax base.
Our foreign-born residents are more likely than U.S.-born to be of prime working age (25–44), at 45 percent vs. 26 percent of U.S.-born residents. Immigrants fill important gaps left as Baby Boomers retire, but most important, immigrants fill jobs suffering shortages of available U.S.-born candidates.
GLI's Kent Oyler returns from India/UAE trip
A look at the data shows that foreign-born residents pool at the extreme ends of the job skill spectrum, where there is great need for employees. This complements native-born workers who tend to cluster in the mid-skill range. For those who say that immigrants are taking ‘our’ jobs, it is simply not true nor borne out by the data.
In addition to helping round out our workforce, immigrants create new businesses at twice the rate of those born in the U.S. Since small businesses account for two out of every three new jobs created in the U.S. our immigrant entrepreneurs are creating opportunities in our local economy. There is also a strong correlation between cities with higher median wages and those with higher foreign-born populations. Talent tends to flock to areas offering great opportunities, and foreign-born workers bring unique expertise and global connections, further enhancing opportunities for existing residents.
Foreign-born residents also help to raise our region’s educational attainment level. Increasing percentages of immigrants are entering the U.S. with higher levels of education. International students in our region pursue advanced degrees, particularly in STEM fields, at a higher rate than national averages (42 percent vs. 37 percent nationally). And culturally, foreign-born Louisvillians expand the diversity of offerings and make ours an even more vibrant city, which helps to make our region more attractive to top talent who consider quality of place as a major factor in relocation decisions.
Foreign-borns can help Louisville leap ahead
Recognizing the opportunity to grow our economy, Greater Louisville Inc. and Metro Government are leading a cross-sector collaborative effort to activate the potential of our growing global community. The initiative, Global Louisville, works to align regional resources and to extend our welcome globally.
Similar initiatives in other regions have helped drive talent booms, including competitors like Nashville, which enjoyed 10 times our net in-migration (including 16,204 foreign born). Greater Louisville has room to grow – our foreign-born proportion is one-third that of America’s biggest metros (6 percent vs. 18 percent). We have a plan and a well-established infrastructure in place to move forward quickly. How our businesses, schools, government and public services sector respond together will determine the pace and quality of our success. We continue to seek advocates and champions in our community to advance this work.
Twenty-first-century cities and winning communities are those that embrace a global perspective. It all starts with a warm welcome to those who seek the opportunities and quality of life Greater Louisville has to offer. Join GLI and Metro Government in this effort and help Louisville extend a welcoming hand to the world.
Kent Oyler is president and CEO of Greater Louisville Inc., the metro chamber of commerce.