IMMIGRANTS
the country are constantly competing to attract the human capital that will allow them to thrive in a global economy,” Ginther said. “Newcomers play an important role in growing our population, adding diversity to our educational systems, starting small businesses and driving economic prosperity.”
The immigrants and refugees in Columbus share the same values as people born here: working hard, providing for their families and trying to make life a little better for their children, he said.
“We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike,” Ginther added, quoting famed poet laureate Maya Angelou’s poem, “Human Family.”
Franklin County commissioners, along with a New American Advisory Council they created, hosted
the half-day event to raise awareness about and promote integration of the area’s immigrant community. More than 300 people attended.
“Franklin County is home to roughly a quarter of Ohio’s new American population,” said Commissioner Kevin L. Boyce, who served as master of ceremonies for the event and helped lead the effort.
Roughly 10.4 percent of the county’s 1.25 million residents are foreign-born — higher than the state’s foreign-born share of the total population at 4.2 percent, but slightly less than the national average of 13.2 percent, according to U.S. census data.
“It would be a disservice to the county as a whole not to recognize and address the challenges and issues that are unique to this community,” Boyce said. “In light of the recent actions taken by the White House, it is clear that we, as a community, must stand together in ensuring that every member of the
community has a fair and equal opportunity.”
Under President Donald Trump’s most recent executive order involving immigrants, which has been temporarily blocked by a Maryland-based federal judge, citizens from six Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — would be prohibited from obtaining new visas. The order also would suspend the U.S. resettlement program for 120 days, and reduce the annual number of refugee admissions for fiscal year 2017 to 50,000 from the originally scheduled 110,000.
The Trump administration has introduced new immigration-enforcement policies that are affecting the local community, said Columbus City Councilwoman Elizabeth Brown, who is assembling a legaldefense fund for people with immigration problems. The fund, for example, could help people trying to get green
cards or visas, reunite their families or fight deportation. The source of the funding is still being worked out, as is whether it could be used on other populations in need of legal assistance, said Lee Cole, Columbus City Council spokeswoman.
“The way immigrants and refugees are being treated across the country, on a personal level, is disheartening to me,” Brown said.
Immigrants need to be seen as a cultural, financial and social benefit, not a drain, Brown said.
In all, immigrant households in Franklin County earned $3.7 billion in 2014 and contributed almost $1 million in local, state and federal taxes, leaving them with about $2.8 billion in spending power, said Richard Andre, an associate director with New American Economy and a presenter at the event.
They are more likely to be of working age (20 to 64 years old) than U.S.-born residents and are more entrepreneurial than the U.S. average, Andre said. They also have higher percentages of people on the lower and higher ends of educational attainment: with less than a high-school diploma or higher than a bachelor’s degree.
“They play a unique role in making the workforce here young, vibrant and competitive,” he said.
They include people such as Mo Dioun, a real-estate developer who came to the United States from Iran at 17 to attend the University of Texas, moved to central Ohio in 1980 to take a job with American Electric Power, and later started developing housing and commercial projects.
“As an immigrant of 45 years,” Dioun said, “I have come to realize the most important factor is integrating into the community in which you are living.”