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How CT’s Growing Immigrant Workforce Boosts Its Economy

Online Niel November 3, 2024

Over the past decade, immigrants who have settled in Connecticut have contributed to the state’s economy by increasing the workforce, paying taxes and spending money.

Connecticut’s immigrant population grew 18 percent to more than 590,000 between 2013 and 2023. During the same period, the state’s native-born population declined 2.3 percent, according to the U.S. Census.

The state’s native population is also aging. Since 2010, the number of nonimmigrant residents age 65 and older has increased by about 145,000, while the 18-64 group has shrunk by 108,000, according to census data.

“As the baby boomers retire, there’s just a greater demand, a greater need for workers from outside the country,” said Balazs Zelity, an assistant professor of economics at Wesleyan University in Middletown.

The model extends to the labor market. Of the state the total workforce — people working or looking for work — rose by 29,000 to 1.88 million in the decade ending in December 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. But the immigrant share of the labor force rose from about 17.3 percent to 19.6 percent during that time, according to census data.

There were about 150,000 unauthorized immigrants in Connecticut in 2022, according to data Pew Research Center analysis of census data. The state’s undocumented population grew rapidly between 1995 and 2005, then hovered around 130,000 for over a decade before starting to rise again.

Immigration plays a key role in the health of the economy — both issues that voters say weigh heavily on their choice of president this year. One Connecticut Mirror Poll of voters earlier this fall, 66 percent said jobs, wages and the economy were important to them when choosing a candidate. More than half of respondents, 54%, also said immigration policy was at the top of their list of key concerns.

Former President Donald Trump and most of his supporters favors mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and nearly all Trump supporters want tighter border security, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll.

In a speech last weekend at Madison Square Garden in New York, the former president vowed, if elected, to “launch the largest deportation program in American history” on his first day in office.

But Wesleyan’s Zelity said economists generally tend to see immigration as a “net positive” in high-income countries like the United States. Migrant workers often enter roles not filled by native residents, in sectors such as construction, food production, personal services and hospitality. (Connecticut employers currently have approx 78,000 open, unfilled jobsaccording to the State Department of Labor.)

Farmington contractor Jules Poirier said nearly all of his staff of 30 workers are immigrants. He said that American workers, in his experience, are not as reliable or motivated.

“My boys work seven days a week for me, not because I tell them to, they want to. They’re polite, they don’t chain smoke, they don’t play loud music all day,” he said. “They’re hungry.”

Poirier’s parents immigrated to the US from Canada in the 1950s and launched the business he now runs with his daughter. He said he was concerned about the growing support he was seeing for mass deportations and border restrictions. Those policies would leave “huge gaps” in the workforce and hurt business, he said.

If Donald Trump is elected, “Guys like me are going to be in trouble,” Poirier said.

Working immigrants are generally “net contributors to the government budget,” Zelity said, because they pay income taxes but are not eligible for certain types of government benefits that native-born residents might receive.

Adding immigrants to the U.S. population also expands the consumer market, he said. “They spend the money here, they contribute to the demand for goods and services, which creates jobs in itself.”

Job creators

Immigrant business owners also create jobs. According to the American Immigration Council, there are approx 45,000 immigrant entrepreneurs in Connecticut, which contributes about $1.4 billion to the state’s economy. Nationally, almost one in five business with employees are owned by immigrants, according to the US Small Business Administration.

Jules Poirier and his daughter Julia now run the family roofing business that his parents started in 1955. Poirier employs mostly immigrant workers. Credit: Courtesy photo / Jules Poirier

Starting a business as an immigrant can be especially difficult, said Pat Posada Klapper, business adviser for the nonprofit Women’s Business Development Council. Would-be entrepreneurs must find financing, fill out registration documents, apply for a name, get an accounting system together, assess their costs, do competitive research and marketing – all in a language they might understand. still learning it.

They do, Posada Klapper said. “I don’t know a harder-working group of people than the immigrants who come in and are now free to pursue their own business,” she said. “They don’t have those options where they come from.”

When that hard work pays off, it’s personally satisfying for the entrepreneur — and it’s good for the economy, Posada Klapper said. “They’re making money based on their own skill set, and they’re probably making more than they would make working for someone else,” she said. “They pay taxes, they employ people, and if they actually make it happen, then they pour money into the economy.”

Tina Huynh, owner of Tina Perma Beauty Spa in Old Saybrook, immigrated to Keene, NH from Vietnam in 2009 when she married her ex-husband, an American citizen. But the marriage didn’t last, and Huynh struggled. In 2019, she and her two children moved to Connecticut, and Huynh launched her business in 2020, becoming sought after during COVID for her one-on-one treatments, one client at a time—a safer option in the era of social distancing.

Huynh’s business grew, and she received grants and accolades from several groups, including the WBDC.

“I built my business from that moment. People really liked the service. I did a good job. And they told their friends, they told their family,” Huynh said.

I am looking for the opportunity

In the years following the COVID recession, the US economy has performed strongly relative to other high-income countries and regions. Economists attribute the recovery, in part, to the account generous aid packages signed by both President Trump and President Joe Biden.

Economists say America’s relative strength over the past decade, including after the COVID recession, is the main reason immigration is on the rise. This is especially true for immigrants with higher levels of education, many of whom settle in Connecticut and the Northeast.

Of Connecticut’s foreign-born workforce, 37 percent have a college degree or higher, according to Zelity.

“Wages have risen relatively more in the US for high-skilled people than in other rich countries, and that may have attracted more people from the high-skilled spectrum,” he said.

Compared to the native population, immigrants are more likely to be in the labor force: 65 percent of naturalized citizens and 68 percent of non-citizens are employed, compared to 62 percent of the US-born. Zelity said this is likely because they came to the US to find work. For visa holders, they must work to maintain their legal status.

Kris Klein Hernández, an assistant professor of history at Connecticut College in New London, said New England has experienced intermittent waves of immigration throughout its history. Younger immigrant populations have repeatedly bolstered the workforce as native-born workers have moved into higher-skilled jobs or left the workforce, Klein Hernández said. These waves of arrivals helped support the dominant industries of each era.

They also supported renowned academic institutions in the region, he said.

“People who are fully educated, with doctorates in Latin America, the Caribbean, are coming because there are job opportunities,” he said. “There is no other place in the country quite like New England, in the scope of education.” (According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Yale University recorded the highest number of H-1B skilled worker visas endorsed by Connecticut employers since 2009.)

Klein Hernández sees the historic flow of immigration to Connecticut as a boon to the state and the region.

“This group of people brings possibilities,” he said. “They’re not just bringing their bodies and their work, they’re bringing ideologies, perspectives, languages that Connecticut can benefit from.”

Workers at Chabaso Bakery’s New Haven manufacturing operation huddle at the start of their shift to hear the day’s production plan. Credit: Photo courtesy / Chabaso Bakery

In New Haven’s Fair Haven neighborhood, Chabaso Bakery has been supplying fresh bread to coffee shops, grocery stores and markets since the 1990s. Charles Negaro Jr., the business’s second-generation owner, frequently hired immigrants to work in his 50,000 square meters – including many newly arrived refugees finding their place.

Chabaso has approximately 115 employees at the plant. In 2021, the company employed 26 Afghan refugees; most of them have since moved on to take other jobs, start their own businesses or move closer to family, Negaro said, but several still work for Chabaso.

“We depend on people willing to roll up their sleeves and work hard,” Negaro said. “It shouldn’t matter where someone comes from or where they come from.”

“Everybody deserves a job, everybody deserves a chance to make a living,” he said.

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