A new report (12/10/09) of the American Immigration Council focusing on Wisconsin highlights why embracing immigration is so important to our state's future.

The September report of the local Bay Area Community Council emphasized that immigrants are critical to both improved economic development as well as innovation, and that our needs in expediting their integration must focus on faster provision of English Language instruction as well as adult/parent cultural assimilation (download "Immigration in Brown County" from the downloads section of the home page).

A new report "New Americans in the Badger State" expands on these arguments.

1. Purchasing Power: It is well documented that immigrants are not taking jobs from current citizens, but are in fact feeding an expanding economy with albeit low skill needs. In 2008, Hispanic and Asian immigrants (born outside the U.S.) spent $8.3 billion in Wisconsin. They earned that money as 40% of all dairy employees, and in canning, food and animal processing, agriculture, landscaping, restaurants and health care, to name a few.

They also paid taxes. While their children do eat up an inordinate percentage of school and other local costs, they are net contributors to state and federal tax coffers ... and are a net positive overall.

Brown County has a higher percentage of immigrants than other parts of the state. A 2008 Wisconsin Policy Research Institute report indicated that positions us for higher future economic growth than virtually any other area in the state.

While Wisconsin has a very low percentage of immigrant-owned businesses relative to the rest of the country, nevertheless the state's 8,700 Hispanic and Asian-owned businesses employed 20,000 people and had taxable receipts of almost $2.5 billion earlier in the decade, and those amounts have undoubtedly risen.

Of interest: Estimates are that about 55,000 of the state's 200,000 immigrant workers are unauthorized/undocumented. If they weren't here, we would lose $1.2 billion in economic output, a Perryman group study says.

2. Educational Attainment: Immigrants who seek naturalized citizenship become shining stars. In Wisconsin a year or so ago, 28% had college degrees, compared to 25% of the population generally.

It is not an overstatement that both the U.S. Congress and our own area should do more to attract aspiring foreign-borns. We make it hard for foreign-born graduate degree recipients to stay in the U.S., and hard for companies to hire into the U.S. foreigners with unique skills ... especially since 9/11. The U.S. has thrived during its eras of major immigration. Just look at Silicon Valley in the 1990s, and right now more than 50% of Silicon Valley startups right now are by immigrants! Indeed, we are virtually a nation of immigrants.

Let's embrace them.

Phil Hauck
Coordinator, Bay Area Community Council Immigration Study