Weekend Reading:
Highlights from this week’s immigration news (July 11-15)
Date: July 15, 2016
This week, Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald announced new research from our organization showing that the 82,308 foreign-born residents of the region have a significant impact on southwestern Pennsylvania’s economy.
The Tribune Live touted the fact that “in 2014, businesses owned by immigrants generated $120 million in total income. Those with businesses in Pittsburgh employed 268 people and generated $109 million in sales.” Mayor Peduto said, “Today, with the new economy growing, a new wave of immigrants are coming from all over the world, and they’re coming to use their minds. It’s the economic growth of the region that is the biggest beneficiary.”
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette quotes our Chairman, John Feinblatt: “Immigrants work in Pittsburgh’s top industries like manufacturing, education, and healthcare; strengthen the local tax base; and start businesses that create jobs in Allegheny County and across the region.”
Read “Advancing the Pittsburgh Region.”
New American Economy also released a report on immigrants advancing the economy in Akron, Ohio. Our State and Local Initiative Director Dan Wallace told Akron public radio station WKSU, “Where immigrants are present, they’re helping to revitalize neighborhoods, they’re starting businesses [and] they work in key areas of the workforce. There’s not the animosity at the local level that you hear about on the national stage.”
“This report is going to prompt some really healthy conversations across the city,” said Kyle Kutuchief, Akron Program Director for the Knight Foundation—which funded the study—told the Akron Beacon Journal.
Read “Welcome to Akron: How Immigrants and Refugees are Contributing to Akron’s Economic Growth.”
