Immigrants have contributed billions of dollars to Ohio’s economy over the years, according to a recent national study.
A study by the immigrant workforce development group Upwardly Global and the American Immigration Council found that in taxes alone, immigrant households in Ohio paid $7 billion in 2022, with $2.4 billion of that coming from state and local taxes. The study found that the purchasing power of foreign-born households was $18.6 billion that year.
“By supporting rapidly growing industries such as advanced manufacturing and health care, they help create more opportunities for the communities and families that have lived in the area for generations,” he says. for examination.
The study comes during an election season in which immigrants have been used as a flashpoint, with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Vice President (and U.S. Sen. from Ohio) J.D. Vance using false information about Haitian people in Springfield as a springboard to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment.
Upwardly Global/AIC’s analysis of the Great Lakes region found increased immigrant populations in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, upstate New York and Ohio, but also found increased housing values and purchasing power as a result that allowed them to “reinvest” into their communities and further stimulate the local economy.”
In 2022, 4.9% of Ohio’s population was foreign-born, representing 581,000 people, compared to 11.2 million reported as U.S.-born.
Both the U.S. and foreign-born population increased in Ohio this year, but immigrants in the Great Lakes region “made up a larger share of the population” in 2022 compared to 2010. In Ohio, the number of immigrants increased by 19.5%. .
The study shows that population growth also means an boost in housing investment. Cincinnati was specifically cited as a city where immigrants were “on average more likely than residents to be financially qualified to purchase distressed properties.”
This was beneficial to the region, which had struggled with outsourcing industries such as steel, automotive and rubber, but saw the implementation of recent industry opportunities such as production.
“Immigrants are playing a key – and growing – role in this resurgence,” researchers said. “While many industries struggle with labor shortages, immigrants have stepped into hard-to-fill jobs, revitalizing the regional workforce and supporting economic growth in America’s former industrial heartland.”
Research shows that as baby boomers leave the workforce, foreign-born doctors, nurses and all types of health care workers are arriving to facilitate fill job openings and assist the aging population in the Great Lakes region.
However, the study found that these immigrant health care workers are underutilized because more than 260,000 people in the U.S. are “unemployed or underemployed.”
“There are thousands of immigrants in Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio who are underutilized in health care education,” the researchers said.
The report found that not only are they willing to take on hard-to-fill jobs, but immigrants continue to play a “vital” role in jobs that some U.S.-born people are not willing to pursue, such as farm work or meatpacking.
According to Upwardly Global and AIC, in cases where a region has lost its immigrant population, the overall economy has suffered. The number of migrant workers in the agricultural industry fell by 12% between 2010 and 2022, and the study found that the labor shortage that persisted during the Covid-19 pandemic “has had a huge impact on employers, food prices and the agricultural economy.”
The study found that Ohio lost 313,000 acres of farmland between 2017 and 2022.
The education sector has also been boosted by the immigrant population, with the Great Lakes region seeing a 42% boost in the number of foreign-born K-12 teachers among slowdown in the number of employees Generally.
According to Upwardly Global and AIC, those seeking education in the states also helped, and international students contributed $1.2 billion to Ohio’s economy.
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