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Issue: 1195 Date: 7/18/2013
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We should welcome immigrants |
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| Bob Fox and Charlie Dooley |
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Editorials, The St. Louis American
It's understandable that when some African Americans hear regional leaders call for more immigration to St. Louis - as St. Louis regional leaders are doing now - they fear more competition for jobs and consequently even less economic opportunity for blacks. However, we reject that notion today and the thinking that was reflected in an analysis in 2006 by the late political science professor Ron Walters. Aware of high unemployment among black men in U.S. cities, Walters pointed out that black men and Latino workers compete for low-wage jobs, and he criticized immigrant workers for not joining labor unions and thereby depressing all laborers' wages.
We should not take the narrow view of anti-immigrant sentiment that was warranted historically. In 2013, African Americans in this region are more compromised by a lagging, slow-growing economy and inferior education than by any anticipated growth in immigration. The St. Louis region faces the challenges of many regions in the Midwest who have seen a dramatic decrease in manufacturing that provided good paying jobs for many years in the past. According to a 2012 study by Jack Strauss, professor of economics and director of the Simon Center for Regional Forecasting at Saint Louis University, immigration expands a region's productive capacity by stimulating investment and promoting specialization. "This in turn leads to efficiency gains, higher profits and wage raises for all workers," Strauss said.
St. Louis has less than 5 percent foreign-born individuals living in the region. It ranks in the top 20 in population but 42nd in terms of immigrants. If St. Louis had experienced an influx of immigrants similar to other large cities, its income growth would have been 4 to 7 percent greater, and the region's income would be 7 to 11 percent larger, according to Strauss' statistical analyses. This is true even when the immigrants are from a demographic with whom blacks traditionally have felt themselves to be in direct economic competition: Latin Americans. Despite this deeply held feeling, African Americans are actually helped - not hurt - economically by Latino immigration.
African Americans in metropolitan areas with more Latino immigration experience significantly higher wages, lower unemployment and higher job creation, according to Strauss' June 2013 study, "Allies, Not Enemies: How Latino immigration boosts African American employment and wages." For every 1 percent increase in a city's share of Latinos, African-American median and mean wages increase by 3 percent. St. Louis has only 1.5 percent of its population from Latin America. If St. Louis had a Latino population as large as other large metropolitan areas, African-American wages would be approximately 30 percent higher, according to the report. Also, African-American unemployment rate would be about two percent lower.
Strauss knows these findings contradict the prevailing view that immigrants, including Latinos, are willing to work for less, and therefore have taken jobs away from African Americans. "To the extent that there really is a 𨘀lack-brown' divide, it is rooted in politics and perception - not economics," Strauss said. We understand that politics and perception speak louder, to most people, than macroeconomics. But we are making a foolish and damaging mistake, given all the actual problems we do have, when we cling to an imagined problem that might, in fact, provide part of the solution to our biggest crisis, which is catastrophic levels of unemployment in our community. The black unemployment rate for June rose to 13.7 percent while the overall unemployment rate was unchanged at 7.6 percent, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
Regional leaders have their hard work cut out for them after decades of xenophobia and backward thinking have contributed to making many immigrants feel unwelcome here. Though long overdue, this initiative deserves our cooperation, not resistance, in supporting a more robust, accelerated solicitation of immigrants of all ethnic backgrounds. Attracting greater numbers of immigrants, with greater inclusion of them in the fabric of the St. Louis region at all levels should be a priority. It is short-sighted not to recognize that greater economic growth and a more vibrant St. Louis economy holds out greater promise for increased employment opportunity and more prosperity for everyone, including the African-American community. Our great challenge is to prepare better for jobs and opportunity in the expanded economy that immigration will help foster.
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