As national pundits focus on the increase of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, a different conversation is unfolding in Prosper, here in North Texas.
Several dozen residents of the fast-growing Dallas suburb gathered on a Thursday night in January at the invitation of Mayor David Bristol for an honest, respectful exchange on how America should address its immigration challenges and how Prosper can welcome newly arriving people from around the world.
Prosper isn’t alone. Cities across America are reimagining what it means to be a high-opportunity community that builds shared prosperity and welcomes newcomers, including new Americans. Cities and towns that get it right, such as Dallas, which became the first Certified Welcoming city in Texas in 2019are reaping significant, measurable benefits.
Great prosperous cities have always been welcoming places. Just as immigrants helped fuel entrepreneurship in European city-states and America’s coastal gateway cities in earlier centuries, 21st-century immigrants are contributing to prosperity for all residents of their adoptive cities, native and foreign-born alike.
Immigrants fill millions of essential jobs, accounting for more than half of construction workers and home health aides in many communities. They are also overrepresented among America’s inventors and entrepreneurs. Cities with relatively large immigrant population shares are exceptionally innovative, a new George W. Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative report shows.
These cities also see higher wages for native-born workers. That’s because immigrants don’t just increase labor supply, they increase demand for goods and services and start local businesses.
Foreign-born people are helping stabilize local populations and thereby supporting local businesses and revitalizing old downtowns. Twenty-eight of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas would have suffered population declines from 2010 to 2021 without immigration. Many Midwestern factories have remained open and preserved thousands of jobs because immigrant engineers enabled them to stay in America.
What’s more, cities that pursue welcoming policies aren’t just advancing their economic self-interest. They’re living out longtime American values. One in four American kids is an immigrant or child of immigrants. What messages are communities sending to this next generation of workers and neighbors? That they belong? Or that our fears, narratives and politics prevent us from valuing them for all they can contribute?
It’s true that the current wave of asylum seekers is imposing substantial costs on cities along the border and elsewhere that weren’t prepared to receive them at today’s unprecedented pace. Washington needs to step up to its responsibilities to support these cities and invest greater resources in managing the complex challenges posed by large numbers wanting to build a better life in the United States. But a narrow focus on upfront costs to the exclusion of long-term benefits can cause people to lose perspective.
Pragmatic communities will get through this moment, as Houston and other cities did with Louisianians after Hurricane Katrina, and Germany did with its “we can manage” approach to welcoming a million Syrians.
While America needs a major rethink of federal immigration policy, cities aren’t waiting. More and more, localities are working to make themselves welcoming places. Here are some of the key steps communities can take to welcome immigrants, and, while they’re at it, newcomers from elsewhere in America too:
First, set the tone. From the mayor on down, leaders throughout the community should affirm the value of being a welcoming place for all, show every newcomer that they belong, and include them throughout community life, from arts festivals to local decision-making. Follow the example of Harrisonburg, Va., which posts ubiquitous signs saying, “No matter where you’re from, we’re glad you’re our neighbor.”
Second, align around a whole-community vision and investment plan. When Dayton, Ohio, and Lancaster, Pa., decided to become more welcoming, they galvanized ongoing collaborative efforts across community institutions from government to schools, libraries and YMCAs. And when the arrival of Afghan refugees in 2021 demanded an all-out effort, cities that already had strong public-private welcoming partnerships like San Antonio and Bowling Green, Ky., led the way in launching successful settlement initiatives.
Third, reduce barriers to opportunity and civic participation. Welcoming communities pursue a systematic approach: Providing multilingual information resources, offering English-language learning opportunities, making local institutions more equitable, and building pathways for immigrants with degrees and credentials from their country of origin to put their skills to work in America. Many cities look to the Welcoming Standarda set of seven framework areas, as a roadmap to guide them there.
Fourth, celebrate and share success. In 2017, Dayton became the first city in the United States to become Certified Welcomingwith business leaders lauding the recognition as a competitive economic advantage for the city. Today, close to 20 cities and towns carry the distinction, following a rigorous audit of their policies and practices.
And fifth, aim to be a high-opportunity city for all Americans, native-born as well as immigrants. The Bush Institute-SMU report shows how commerce-friendly rules governing food trucks in certain cities have spawned immigrant-owned businesses while delighting eaters, and how immigrants ― like native-born people — are moving in large numbers to cities with good opportunities to work, educate their children and afford a home.
Communities like Prosper are starting hard conversations. And, across the country, such efforts have deepened over time into hundreds of well-established initiatives that enhance opportunity and belonging for all. For the sake of our economy as well as our democratic values, it’s time for more cities and towns to do the same.
Cullum Clark is Director of the George W. Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative and an adjunct professor of economics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Rachel Perić is the executive director of Welcoming America. They wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.
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