Asheville immigrants have 'very real and tangible' economic impact, report shows

ASHEVILLE — Asheville's foreign-born workers contribute almost $1 billion to the area's gross domestic product and paid more than $113 million in taxes in 2016, a new report compiled by New American Economy shows.

The coalition made up of business leaders and government officials found that immigrants in Asheville play vital roles in industries such as construction and tourism, representing at least 11% of the workforce in both fields. That report, which tracked all workers born outside the U.S. regardless of their immigration status, was highlighted during a May 21 policy event at the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber officials have argued for the economic benefits of immigration in Asheville and elsewhere in Western North Carolina at a time when the topic tends to be politically polarizing.

Kate Brick, director of state and local initiatives at New American Economy, said immigrants make up a "relatively low" share of Asheville's metropolitan population at 5.3% but accounted for almost one-quarter of local population growth from 2011-16. She said that's important as population increases are tied to economic growth as well as expanding tax bases, boosting consumer spending and filling in gaps in the workforce.

"There's a very real and tangible economic imprint that comes with this relatively small population," Brick said. 

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Asheville's metropolitan area includes Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson and Madison counties. The report found foreign-born households in the region earned $489 million in the period it studied. Of that total, more than $72 million went to federal taxes and another $41 million paid into state and local taxes.

That leaves those households with some $375 million in spending power, which Brick called "a really, really significant number." A fact sheet provided to the press which highlights the report's findings is posted below.

Their contributions also are being felt by local employers. Representatives from several including parachute manufacturer Mills Manufacturing, commercial construction firm Wayne Brothers Companies and the Omni Grove Park Inn called for federal immigration reform to maximize the value they see immigrants bringing to communities.

Wayne Brothers President and CEO Keith Wayne said the immigrant workforce "has always and continues to" make contributions to the local construction industry. Wayne employs about 550 employees across the southeastern U.S., many of whom are skilled tradesmen that have contributed to large regional developments such as the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. facility in Fletcher.

He said the conversation about those benefits must be shared on the national stage, and in ways he says are more positive than some discussions taking place.

"You only hear the negative aspects of immigration and not the positive aspects," Wayne said. 

John Oswald, president and CEO of Mills, which relocated to Asheville in the early 1950s, said the company's workforce has evolved considerably over time. Demographics of Mills employees are roughly split between native-born workers, those of eastern European descent and Hispanics. 

Oswald said without the immigrant population being a large slice of the local workforce, "it affects our ability to grow."

"The training and skill development that's involved takes a lot of time, and not everybody has the aptitude or ability to do that," he said. "We need to pull from a large group of folks to be able to have the best selection of people that have the opportunity to be successful."

Immigration is one of the central policy directives of President Donald Trump, who ran on building a more than 1,900-mile barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border. He also canceled the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, stripping away protections from 1.3 million Dreamers, or immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

Under Trump, arrests for illegally crossing the Mexican border and undetected illegal border crossings are down, both trends that predate his presidency, the former dropping for much of the past two decades, federal immigration data shows. (Asylum claims, however, have risen, something the president wants to change.) 

Trump last week rolled out a proposal to overhaul U.S. immigration policies, offering a point-based merit standard for applications, scaling back family-based immigration and arguing the country must limit asylum seekers.

"If adopted, our plan will transform America’s immigration system into the pride of our nation and the envy of the modern world," he said in a May 16 address in the White House Rose Garden.

But it's a policy that could be troublesome in cities like Asheville, which has touted the state's lowest employment rate for about four years, spelling a worker shortage for some local employers.

Corie Hackney, employment manager at the Omni Grove Park Inn, said some immigration change must come.

"We need to make it easier for people to find a pathway to citizenship, maybe if they're undocumented," Hackney said. "It's very expensive. People don't always have the means to take that pathway. To change, maybe not make it easy easy, but maybe take out some of the barriers people see in place."

The discussion also can be hampered by the demographics in Asheville. U.S. Census data shows the city of some 83,000 people is about 83% white, 12% black and only about 6% Hispanic or Latino. Black and Latino population totals in Asheville chart several percentage points lower than they do overall in North Carolina.

Asked about that disparity, Asheville Chamber President and CEO Kit Cramer said, "It's a journey," both in terms of communicating immigration issues and addressing them.

"There are a variety of issues we're working on in little pieces, and it's very frustrating how long it takes and how hard it is to communicate," she said, adding a recent community visioning survey issued by the chamber "saw very little return."

Cramer said it takes community collaboration to generate the type of progress the chamber wants to see.

But on Trump's recent immigration proposal, Wayne said he views what constitutes "merit" very differently than the president.

"It's not doctors and lawyers and engineers," he said. "It's laborers and carpenters and the folks that do the hard work. I would say to Mr. Trump: read the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. 

"It's the huddled masses, the people of will that want to work, and that's what they do."