Table 5 Immigrant Economic Contribution Ratio
by Metro Area
Metropolitan Statistical Areas
Foreign-born Foreign-born Immigrant
Share of
Share of
Economic
Population Economic Contribution
Output Ratio
New York
Los Angeles
Chicago
Dallas
Philadelphia
Houston
Miami
Washington
Atlanta
Detroit
Boston
San Francisco
Phoenix
Riverside
Seattle
Minneapolis
San Diego
St. Louis
Tampa
Baltimore
Denver
Pittsburgh
Portland
Cincinnati
Cleveland
28%
35%
18%
18%
9%
21%
37%
20%
13%
9%
16%
30%
17%
22%
15%
9%
23%
4%
12%
8%
13%
3%
12%
3%
6%
28%
34%
18%
16%
10%
21%
38%
20%
13%
11%
16%
29%
15%
25%
16%
8%
23%
5%
13%
9%
10%
4%
12%
5%
7%
1.00
1.00
1.02
0.91
1.11
0.99
1.03
0.98
1.03
1.30
0.99
0.98
0.89
1.15
1.02
0.88
0.98
1.22
1.08
1.24
0.82
1.47
0.98
1.39
1.26
Total for 25
Metro Areas
20%
20%
1.02
Total for U.S.
12%
14%
1.12
Source: Immigrants and the Economy: Contribution of Immigrant Workers to the
Country’s 25 Largest Metropolitan Areas. Fiscal Policy Institute, December 2009.
force. A 2012 report on the impact of immigrants on Maryland found that, “Over the past decade Maryland’s growth
in construction, travel, retail, transportation, farming and
fishing sectors was greatly supported through immigration.
Without the influx of foreign-born workers, expansion in
these labor-intensive industries would have been choked
off, increasing prices and discouraging growth across the
economy.”36 In Detroit, analysts agree that even immigrants
without a great deal of formal education drive economic
growth. Matt Bihun, who worked with the Southwest Detroit
www.bread.org
Business Association, said, “Immigration…is the most important generator of economic development in the city right
now. Harnessing their energies and motivations and facilitating that is the most important economic development tool
we have.” Bihun said that the working-class immigrant neighborhoods of southwest Detroit are “the only area [outside
downtown]…that has a thriving main commercial artery.”
In Baltimore, data indicate that immigrant neighborhoods
in the southeastern part of the city have higher rates of employment and more neighborhood businesses per resident than
non-immigrant neighborhoods.37 Southwest Detroit is more
densely populated and has higher rates of employment than
the city as a whole.38 Southwest Detroit is also more entrepreneurial. It has more businesses than downtown Detroit, and
10 percent of all households report self-employment income—
about double the rate of the city as a whole.39
Immigrant Entrepreneurs
“The entrepreneurial success o