Can immigrants help the economy?
When Marta Hensley opened her small Hispanic store in Bowling Green, Ky., in the early 1990s, there was no “Little Mexico” neighborhood, no proliferation of Bosnian restaurants or international grocery stores. Back then, the immigrant population of the city could be measured in the hundreds. That number has increased more than sevenfold in the past two decades, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“When I came here there were no Spanish. Then first came the Spanish and the Russians, then Vietnamese and Cambodian. Now they are from Burma and Africa,” Hensley said. Hensley immigrated to the United States from El Salvador in 1981, and moved to Bowling Green with her husband six years later.
Along with the increased number of immigrants has come an increased number of immigrant-owned businesses in Bowling Green. With the current economic crisis, the effects of immigration on the economy are being closely studied. Anti-immigration groups say that immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans, but some local economists argue that immigration has a positive impact on the economy.
"The recent move by the federal government to restrict immigration is actually destructive to the economy,” said Brian Strow, an economics professor at Western Kentucky University and a former Bowling Green City Commissioner.
Bowling Green’s foreign-born population is approximately 4,420, according to the 2005-2007 U.S. Census data. This has increased enormously from the 616 foreign-born residents in the 1989 survey. The faces of immigrants and refugees can be seen all over the city, working in restaurants, pharmacies, and auto repair shops. Bowling Green industries have been significantly impacted by the influx of immigrants and refugees that have flooded the city over the last two decades.
John Petersen, a political science professor and former Director of International Programs at WKU, has lived in Bowling Green almost 40 years and has observed firsthand the change in the city’s composition. Petersen said the increased international population has been healthy for Bowling Green, enriching the cultural life of a formerly monolithic community.
Strow emphasized how the immigrants can help the economy of Bowling Green. Kentucky’s economy is relatively weak compared to the national economy, and Strow said immigrants can help.
“[Immigrants have] always been a boon to the economy,” said Strow, who specializes in American economic history.
More immigrants lead to more jobs, according to Strow. Many immigrants and refugees have opened ethnic restaurants to showcase their native cuisine, and with each new restaurant people get jobs as servers, busboys, managers, and bartenders. But Bowling Green immigrants have not limited themselves to just “ethnic” jobs.
Thuan Trinh is the general manager of the Wal-Mart on Campbell Lane. In 1979, Trinh escaped Vietnam by boat at the age of 17. After leaving behind his war-torn homeland, he spent one year in a refugee camp in Indonesia before his application to the United States was accepted and he moved to Bowling Green. Within a year of arriving, Trinh got his first job as a cart pusher at Wal-Mart. At the time he was just in high school and struggling to master the English language, but by 1989 he had worked his way up to management. Today his store has 470 employees and sees approximately 60,000 customers each week. Trinh remains proud of his Vietnamese heritage, but he is emphatic in his choice to live in the United States.
“I live American dream. I don’t think I can do- live anywhere else. I wouldn’t have the opportunity to be as successful as I am today,” he said. “If I had to go back and do it again, I wouldn’t change anything.”
Thuan is not the only member of his family who has been successful and found a home in Bowling Green. His brother Hung owns an auto repair shop just down the road from Wal-Mart, and Hung’s son Trung is a pharmacist at Kroger. The Trinh family all managed to escape Vietnam by different boats within a year of each other.
Trung was only 6 when his family immigrated to the United States. Trung started public school without knowing any English, and his father decided to go to college at age 33.
“We started from the bottom,” Trung said. But the bottom quickly turned into the top. Trung graduated valedictorian of his high school class and graduated summa cum laude from WKU, with degrees in biology and chemistry. He then went on to earn a doctorate in pharmacy and began working in the Kroger pharmacy right out of school. According to Trung, being a refugee helped contribute to his success.
“If anything, it serves as a motivation. It’s what motivates you, drives you to be the best you can,” he said.
Success stories such as the Trinhs’ lead many economists to advocate expanded immigration as an economic advantage. Strow was a Bowling Green City Commissioner from 2005 through 2008, and he said immigrants put a lot of their own money into redeveloping buildings in sections of downtown. Not only were they revitalizing the city, but the immigrants were also bringing the local government increased tax revenue. WKU economy professor and Ukrainian immigrant Alex Lebedinsky said that immigrants bring more innovation to the United States.
“If you try to shut out immigrants, you’re limiting your choices,” Lebedinsky said. “We get the best of the best from other countries.”
A 2007 study by the Kauffman Foundation found that at least one immigrant was a “key founder” of 25.3 percent of engineering and technology firms established in the United States from 1995 through 2005. The study estimated that these companies had more than $52 billion in sales and provided almost 450,000 job. Companies founded or co-founded by an immigrant include Google, Yahoo, and eBay.
In the areas of unskilled and illegal immigrants, Lebedinsky and Strow still find economic benefits.
“If we kicked out all illegal immigrants, imagine how worse off we’d be,” Lebedinsky said. “We couldn’t afford to pay Americans for all the jobs.”
“They’re willing to work, you should let them work,” Strow said.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) argues that allowing low-skilled immigrants into the United States leads to lower wages and fewer jobs for Americans, and the fiscal costs of immigration outweigh the economic benefits. FAIR’s media director, Ira Mehlman, said that you can’t generalize about all immigrants’ effects on the economy, but America’s immigration policies should be revamped so that far fewer people are admitted each year. There should be a rational assessment of what the needs of this country are, Mehlman said. People who come in without the education, training and job skills that are necessary have a negative impact on the economy.
Lebedinsky and Strow acknowledge that there are costs to immigration. In some instances immigrants drive down wages if they are willing to work for less pay than a U.S. citizen, and there can be some job displacement. Social services bear the burden to provide translators and interpreters to people who are not fluent in English, and immigrants who cannot afford insurance may put more pressure on welfare programs.
With the current state of the nation’s, and specifically Kentucky’s, economy, the extra stress immigration may place on the economy is carefully scrutinized. Kentucky ranks 44 out of the 50 states in per capita GDP, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The current statewide unemployment rate is at 10 percent, slightly higher than the national average of 9 percent, and Bowling Green is at 9.5 percent unemployment.
Strow blames Kentucky’s weak economy on over-centralization, heavy taxes, and being a union state. He said he thinks Kentucky could help its economy if it attracted more immigrants.
In Bowling Green, the immigrant-owned businesses have seen varying degrees of affects from the economic crisis. Some business owners have only seen a small decrease in sales during the recession..
Tayeba Miah has noticed a small drop in business, but has not been hard hit by the recession. Miah is an immigrant from Bangladesh, and she co-owns the International Market with her husband. Their store sells food from all over the world, and they serve much of the international community of Bowling Green.
Juan Maldonado’s business, however, has been hit hard by the recession. His father owns the Panaderia La Espiga, a bakery on Morgantown Road, and two other bakeries in Nashville. Maldonado runs La Espiga while his father lives in Nashville and runs those bakeries. The Maldonado family immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 1997 for a better life. Now that the economy has weakened, they are struggling to keep the bakery open.
“Right now the economy is bad. There’s nothing you can do,” Maldonado said.
Maldonado has rented half of his building to a small restaurant in order to help bring in money.
Boris Vignjevic did not face any difficulties due to the economy when he decided to open his own bar and restaurant near Fountain Square. After two and a half months of paperwork and obtaining licenses, Vignjevic opened Entourage Tapas Bar and Lounge on New Year’s Eve. Vignejevic has been in Bowling Green for seven years, after emigrating from Bosnia when he was 19. Vignjevic admits that it has been more work than he expected, but he said so far Entourge has been successful.
Salon owner and Vietnamese immigrant Johnny Huynh said that his sales have increased, despite the weak economy. Huynh owns Luxury Nails Salon and Spa on Scottsville Road, and according to him, even people who have been laid off continue to come to his salon.
“People around here, they love to eat and pamper. They don’t care about tomorrow,” Huynh said.
The pampering Huynh offers to his customers is a far cry from his homeland of Vietnam. Huynh and the Trinhs praise the freedom they found in America after leaving Vietnam. Trung said he and his family are fortunate and blessed for they opportunities they have found in the United States.
“This is our country. There is no better place than America.”