Could immigration save Youngstown?

(Second of a two-part series)

By Justin Wier

jwier@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

When Youngstown’s economy was booming, immigrants flooded the area.

The town was built on steel, but much of that steel was created by immigrants who shoveled coke into blast furnaces along the Mahoning River.

Immigration attorney Richard Herman believes immigrants could again fuel growth in Youngstown and other Rust Belt communities.

Look at Toronto, Canada, Herman said. It’s a cold, northern city in the Great Lakes region. The similarities don’t end there. Like Youngstown, Toronto also has a housing problem.

“Their housing problem is the housing values keep going up,” Herman said. “And you can attribute that to one main reason: immigration.”

Nearly half of Toronto residents were born outside of Canada, according to the 2011 National Household Survey. Just 3.7 percent of Youngstown residents were born outside the U.S.

“It’s miniscule,” Herman said. “The national average is about 13 percent, and the cities that are really popping in North America are probably about 25 percent.”

This is not only because immigrants are attracted to economic opportunities, Herman said, but also because research has shown immigrants outperform native-born residents in terms of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Despite only comprising 13 percent of the population, immigrants create a quarter of new businesses and receive a quarter of patents, according to the Harvard Business Review.

“If we really wanted to create an immigration system that would create American jobs, we could do it,” Herman said. “But we refuse to do it.”

Herman argues that the current immigration system doesn’t properly weigh employment-based immigration, as opposed to family-based immigration. About two-thirds of immigration to the U.S. is family-based, compared with one-third of immigration to Canada.

“Other countries look at us and just laugh at us,” Herman said.

The preference granted to keeping families together is outdated, Herman said. With international travel and the internet, families are more able to maintain contact if a member moves abroad. The needs of the labor market also have changed.

“Back then we needed brawn,” Herman said. “We needed laborers to work the fields, to work the factories. Today, we need more brainpower than anything.”

The primary way the U.S. imports brainpower is through the H-1B program. President Donald Trump recently ordered a review of the program, which brings in 85,000 highly skilled immigrants each year. Many technology companies have argued this isn’t enough to meet their needs. On April 1, companies filed about 200,000 applications for the 85,000 slots.

For Microsoft, the lack of H-1B visas was one factor that led them to open an office in Vancouver.

“Microsoft is basically saying we think the world’s best and brightest need to innovate in the same room, but the U.S. won’t let us do it,” Herman said. “So the best thing for [them] to do is open up research and development right over the U.S. border, so the U.S. team can go over to Vancouver and innovate with the international team.”

This is where Herman sees an opportunity for Rust Belt communities.

“Why don’t we exempt the most economically disadvantaged parts of our country from these business-crushing visa quotas,” Herman said. “If you locate a Microsoft facility in downtown Youngstown, we’ll allocate you 500 visas.”

Jim Cossler, CEO of the Youngstown Business Incubator, said he’s been advocating for preferential treatment in the H1-B visa program forever. It would create high-value, high-paying jobs in areas that don’t typically produce them, he said.

“I think Youngstown would benefit from the creation of jobs and the expertise these people have,” Cossler said.

In addition to attracting immigrants, having firms such as Microsoft invest in areas such as Youngstown may also lead graduates from nearby universities including Carnegie Mellon and Case-Western Reserve to stay in the area instead of fleeing for the coasts.

“I think it would accelerate the hiring of local people with those skills,” Cossler said.

Tom Humphries, CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, said that while his organization hasn’t officially endorsed preferential treatment of H1-B visas for areas such as Youngstown, it’s something he would encourage the board to support.

“It’s something that could attract R&D and the intellectual skills to fill those positions,” Humphries said.

There are about 12,000 jobs open in the area in an average month, and Humphries said this could be another tool to help companies fill those positions.

Philadelphia managed to solve another problem Youngstown faces in part by attracting immigrants: population decline. Mayor Jim Kenney began pushing for immigration when he was a city councilman. The city began trying to attract foreign investment, allowing immigrants to obtain green cards through the immigrant investor program, which grants green cards to the family of someone who invests $1 million and creates 10 jobs. The colleges banded together and created a website to market Philadelphia as a city that welcomes international students. A Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians coordinates English-as-a-second-language programs and other services for immigrants.

In the 2010 census, the city saw population growth for the first time in 60 years, with an increase of 12,600 residents. The foreign-born population rose to 11.5 percent in 2010 from 9 percent in 2000, an increase of 35,200 residents.

“Cities that have really thought through immigration as a growth strategy have done very, very well,” Herman said. “Cities that have not done that – or are even hostile to it – they’re becoming global backwater cities.”