The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
Immigrants have contributed billions of dollars to the Ohio economy over the years, according to a new national study.
The study conducted by immigrant workforce development group Upwardly Global and the American Immigration Council, showed in taxes alone immigrant households in Ohio paid $7 billion in 2022, with $2.4 billion of those in state and local tax contributions. The research said the spending power of those foreign-born households was $18.6 billion in that year.
“By bolstering fast-growing industries like advanced manufacturing and health care, they are helping create more opportunities for communities and families that have lived in the area for generations,” according to the study.
The study comes amid an election cycle where immigrants have been used as a flashpoint, with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and vice presidential candidate (and U.S. Senator from Ohio) J.D. Vance using false information about Haitian residents in Springfield as a springboard to stoke anti-immigrant sentiment.
The Upwardly Global/AIC analysis of the Great Lakes region showed increased immigrant populations in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, upstate New York and Ohio, but also showed increased housing values as a result, and spending power that allowed them to “reinvest in their communities and further stimulate local economies.”
In 2022, 4.9% of Ohio’s population was foreign born, amounting to 581,000 people, versus the 11.2 million reported as U.S.-born.
Both the U.S.-born and foreign-born population increased that year in Ohio, but immigrants in the Great Lakes region “comprised a larger share of the population” in 2022 compared to 2010. Ohio saw a 19.5% increase in immigrant population.
That population increase means an increase in home investment as well, according to the study. Cincinnati was specifically mentioned as a city in which immigrants were “more likely than residents, on average, to be financially eligible to buy distressed properties.”
This has been beneficial to the region, which has struggled with the outsourcing of industries like steel, auto and rubber, but seen implementation of new industry opportunities like manufacturing.
“Immigrants are playing a pivotal – and growing – role in this revival,” researchers stated. “While many industries struggle with labor shortages, immigrants have taken on the hard-to-fill jobs, reinvigorating the regional workforce and supporting the economic growth in American’s former industrial heartland.”
As baby boomers leave the workforce, the research shows foreign-born residents who are doctors, nurses and health care professionals of all kinds have come in to help fill the vacant roles and assist the aging populations in the Great Lakes.
But those immigrants within the health care industry aren’t being used to their full potential, the study found, with more than 260,000 “unemployed or underemployed” in the U.S.
“Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio all have thousands of immigrants whose health care degrees are underutilized,” researchers stated.
Not only willing to take on hard-to-fill jobs, the report found immigrant populations still play a “vital” role in jobs some U.S.-born residents aren’t willing to do, like farm-working and meatpacking.
In instances where the region has lost immigrant population, the economy overall has suffered according to Upwardly Global and the AIC. The number of immigrant workers in the agriculture industry decreased by 12% between 2010 and 2022, and the study showed the lack of workers, which continued through the COVID-19 pandemic, “greatly impacted employers, food prices and the agricultural economy.”
The state lost 313,000 acres of farmland Ohio between 2017 and 2022, according to the study.
The education sector has been bolstered by the immigrant population as well, with the Great Lakes seeing a 42% increase in K-12 teachers who were foreign born amid slowing workforce numbers overall.
Those seeking education in the states have helped as well, with international students bringing a reported $1.2 billion to the Ohio economy, according to Upwardly Global and the AIC.
