Over the past decade, immigrants settling in Connecticut have contributed to the state’s economy by boosting the labor force, paying taxes and spending money.
Connecticut’s immigrant population rose by 18% to more than 590,000 between 2013 and 2023. During that same period, the state’s native-born population declined 2.3%, according to the U.S. Census.
2024 CT Voter Guide: What you need to know for election day, see early voting locations
The state’s native-born population is also aging. Since 2010, the number of nonimmigrant residents aged 65 and older has risen by approximately 145,000 while the 18-64 group narrowed by 108,000, according to Census data.
“As the baby boomer generation retires, there’s just a larger demand, a larger need for workers from outside the country,” Balazs Zelity, assistant professor of economics at Wesleyan University in Middletown, said.
The pattern extends to the labor market. The state’s overall labor force — people who are working or looking for work — grew by a slight 29,000 to 1.88 million over the decade ending in December 2023, according to the U.S. Labor Department. But immigrants’ share of the workforce expanded from approximately 17.3% to 19.6% during that time, according to Census data.
There were roughly 150,000 unauthorized immigrants in Connecticut in 2022, according to Pew Research Center analysis of Census data. The state’s undocumented population rose rapidly between 1995 and 2005, then hovered around 130,000 for over a decade before beginning to climb again.
Immigration plays a key role in the health of the economy — both issues voters say weigh heavily on their choice for president this year. In a Connecticut Mirror poll of voters earlier this fall, 66% said jobs, wages and the economy were important to them when choosing a candidate. More than half of the respondents, 54%, also said immigration policy topped their list of key issues.
Former President Donald Trump and a majority of his supporters favor mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, and nearly all Trump supporters want stricter border security, according to a recent poll by Pew Research Center.
In a speech last weekend at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the former president vowed, if elected, to “launch the largest deportation program in American history” on his first day in office.
But Zelity, of Wesleyan, said economists generally tend to view immigration as a “net positive” in high-income countries like the United States. Migrant workers often step into roles that aren’t being filled by native residents, in sectors like construction, food manufacturing, personal services and hospitality. (Connecticut employers currently have roughly 78,000 open, unfilled jobs, according to the state labor department.)
Farmington-based contractor Jules Poirier said nearly his entire staff of 30-odd workers are immigrants. He said American workers, in his experience, aren’t as reliable or motivated.
“My guys 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 U.S. from Canada in the 1950s and launched the business that he now runs with his daughter. He said he’s concerned about the increasingly vocal support he sees for mass deportation and border restrictions. Those policies would leave “huge gaps” in the labor force and hurt businesses, he said.
If Donald Trump is elected, “Guys like me are going to be in trouble,” Poirier said.
Working immigrants are overall “net contributors to the government budget,” Zelity said, because they pay income taxes but aren’t eligible for certain types of government benefits that native residents might receive.
The addition of immigrants to the U.S. population also expands the consumer market, he said. “They spend their money here, they contribute demand for goods and services, which creates jobs in and of itself.”
Job creators
Immigrant business owners also create jobs. According to the American Immigration Council, there are roughly 45,000 immigrant entrepreneurs in Connecticut who contribute roughly $1.4 billion to the state economy. Nationwide, nearly one in five businesses with employees are owned by immigrants, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Starting a business as an immigrant can be especially challenging, said Pat Posada Klapper, a business advisor with the nonprofit Women’s Business Development Council. Would-be entrepreneurs have to find funding, complete registration paperwork, apply for a name, get an accounting system together, assess their costs, do competitive research and marketing — all in a language they may still be learning.
They get it done, Posada Klapper said. “I don’t know of a harder-working group of people than immigrants who come over and are now free to pursue a business of their own,” 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 beneficial for the economy, Posada Klapper said. “They’re making money based on their own set of skills, 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 can really make it happen, then they’re pouring money back into the economy.”
Tina Huynh, owner of Tina Perma Beauty Spa in Old Saybrook, immigrated to Keene, N.H., from Vietnam in 2009 when she married her now-ex husband, an American citizen. But the marriage didn’t last, and Huynh struggled. In 2019, she and her two children relocated to Connecticut, and Huynh launched her business in 2020, becoming sought-after during COVID for her individual, one-client-at-a-time treatments — a safer option in the social distancing era.
Huynh’s business grew, and she received grants and accolades from several groups, including WBDC.
“I built my business from that time. People really loved the service. I did a good job. And they told their friends, they told their family,” Huynh said.
Seeking opportunity
In the years since the COVID recession, the U.S. economy has performed strongly relative to other high-income countries and regions. Economists attribute the recovery, in part, to the 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 a top reason immigration is rising. That’s particularly true for immigrants with higher levels of education, many of whom settle in Connecticut and the Northeast.
Within Connecticut’s foreign-born labor force, 37% have a college education or higher, according to Zelity.
“Wages have grown relatively more in the U.S. for high-skilled people than in other rich countries, and that might have attracted more people on the high-skilled end of the spectrum,” he said.
Compared to the native-born population, immigrants are more likely to be in the labor force: 65% of naturalized citizens and 68% of noncitizens are employed, compared to 62% of those born in the U.S. Zelity said that’s likely because they came to the U.S. to find work. In the case of visa holders, they have to work in order to maintain their legal status.
Kris Klein Hernández, assistant professor of history at Connecticut College in New London, said New England has seen intermittent waves of immigration throughout its history. Younger immigrant populations have repeatedly shored up the labor force as native workers moved into higher-skilled work or aged out of the workforce, Klein Hernández said. Those waves of arrivals helped to support each era’s dominant industries.
They’ve also supported the region’s renowned academic institutions, he said.
“People who are fully educated, with doctorates in Latin America, the Caribbean, they’re coming because there’s job opportunities,” he said. “There’s no other place in the country that looks like New England, in terms of the education sphere.” (According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Yale University recorded the highest number of H-1B skilled worker visas approved among Connecticut employers since 2009.)
Klein Hernández views the historic flow of immigration to Connecticut as a benefit to the state and the region.
“This group of people is bringing possibilities,” he said. “They’re not only bringing their bodies and their labor, but they’re bringing ideologies, perspectives, languages that Connecticut can benefit from.”
In New Haven’s Fair Haven neighborhood, Chabaso Bakery has been supplying fresh bread to cafes, grocery stores and markets since the 1990s. Charles Negaro Jr., the second-generation owner of the business, has frequently hired immigrants to work in his 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility — including many newly-arrived refugees who are finding their footing.
Chabaso employs about 115 staff at the factory. In 2021, the company hired 26 Afghan refugees; most of them have since moved on to take other jobs, start their own businesses or relocate closer to family, Negaro said, but several still work for Chabaso.
“We depend on people who want to roll up their sleeves and do hard work,” Negaro said. “It really shouldn’t matter where somebody’s from or their background.”
“Everybody deserves to have a job, everybody deserves a chance to make a living,” he said.
Erica E. Phillips and Renata Daou are reporters for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/ ). Copyright 2024 © The Connecticut Mirror.
