for immigrants. While Detroit City Hall does not have a
robust program to welcome immigrants, the positive impact
of immigration on the city is not lost on local officials. In
2012 Detroit Mayor Dave Bing called Mexicantown “one
of the bright spots in our city.”30 Hector Hernandez said
that the vibrancy of southwest Detroit is also reflected in
the abundance of fresh food markets in the midst of a city
described as a food desert. “In southwest Detroit you have
no less than five really large grocery stores that cater to the
ethnic community,” Hernandez said.
Experts working with the local immigrant community
said that immigrants also come to southwest Detroit with
the skills needed to build it up. “A lot of the neighborhood
is being built house-by-house, block-by-block by immigrants,
many of whom are undocumented, many of whom have
construction skills by trade,” said Ryan Bates, director of the
Alliance for Immigrant Rights. “They are buying houses that
are abandoned, that are dilapidated and rebuilding them.”
This is in line with national studies showing that immigrants stabilize communities in decline. Often, native-born
Americans move into these areas after they are “pioneered”
by newcomers. One study by the Americas Society/Council
of the Americas and the Partnership for a New American
Economy found that “for every 1,000 immigrants settling in a
county, 250 U.S.-born individuals follow, likely drawn by the
increased economic opportunities created by immigrants.”31
The report also found that nationwide, immigrants created
$3.7 trillion in housing wealth.
As in Baltimore, manual labor jobs and an abundance of
affordable housing are the main attractions for immigrants
to Detroit. Bates said that these socioeconomic characteristics have been drawing in immigrants despite the lack of
a specific immigration strategy from the city. “We tried to
engage [local government] on immigrant integration and
welcoming but the city’s in such crisis that it’s been hard to
get it on the radar,” he said. Although Detroit City Hall isn’t
actively welcoming immigrants, Michigan has a perhaps
unexpected immigration champion: Republican Governor
Rick Snyder. In May 2013, Snyder tweeted, “If you made a
short list of what made America great, immigration would
be on it.” Snyder is working with a bipartisan group of political and bus