D&C Editorial: Migrants a key to turn back state’s declining population

March 3rd, 2024

New York’s population decline has been a long time in the making. In 2020, the year of COVID-19 and working from home, 1-in-every-100 New York residents left the state.

According to the state Comptroller’s Office, 2021 marked the first year the total number of personal income tax filers declined since the Great Recession.

Now, newly released census data reveals this situation is worse than expected; with more than 100,000 New Yorkers moving out between July 2022 and July 2023, and over 600,000 moving out since 2020, New York leads the nation in population decline.

The causes of this decline are many and complex but what is clear is that the loss of population will have disastrous effects on our economy and the vibrancy of our communities. Fewer shoppers are walking down Main Streets, fewer workers are applying for jobs and fewer students are enrolling in our schools. Our economy is people-powered, and with fewer people participating in our economy, we’ll all feel the consequences.

That all being said, part of the solution is right in front of our faces. It’s the 100,000-plus people who have braved death, disease and violence to travel thousands of miles with one goal in mind: coming to New York to achieve a better life for their families. As our state experiences record loss in the number of people who once called it home, a steady flow of migrant families and asylum seekers has helped offset population declines. While some local leaders have framed the increase in New York’s migrant population as a different crisis, we ought to view this as a solution: a unique opportunity to grow our economy and tackle our pressing population issue.

The migrant families arriving in New York epitomize the American Dream. They arrive here in search of what we all want: safety and stability for our families. Ask any asylum seeker and they’ll tell you that they are here to work, not to depend on government handouts.

While migrants wait for work authorization, there is more we can do to make sure they hit the ground running as soon as they are legally able to do so.

That’s why I stand alongside New York’s leading business groups and labor leaders including The Business Council of New York, the AFL-CIO, and 1199 SEIU to convene the Ellis Island Initiative. Together we will rethink our state’s approach to this influx and tout the economic benefits we’ll all reap if we fully integrate migrants into our communities.

New York state has nearly half a million open jobs that employers have been unable to fill. Thanks to our growing migrant population, we have a budding workforce with relevant skills that can be leveraged to meet our workforce needs. Gov. Kathy Hochul, leaders in Albany and organizations across the state have an opportunity to create robust workforce development opportunities for all New Yorkers to keep our economy on track.

We must also accelerate apprenticeship programs to train immigrant workers and plug them into our economy as soon as possible. Many of our hardest-hit sectors can benefit from our newest neighbors including construction, hospitality, and nursing among others.

Our investments today will pay off in the long run. The Ellis Island Initiative recently partnered with the Immigration Research Initiative to issue new research on the economic prospects of newly arrived migrants and the numbers were incredibly promising. In Upstate, our report finds that for every 1,000 newcomers to Upstate, nearly $2 million worth of taxes and $17 million in wages are generated in their first year. These figures go up to $3.4 million in tax revenue and $30 million in wages after five years.

These figures further fuel our commitment to changing the narrative around the influx of newcomers and identifying opportunities to plug them into our economy. This sentiment was palpable in our first-ever Regional Convening held right here in Rochester where we convened elected officials, workforce development organizations, and local employers to come up with common-sense solutions that work for everyone.

Justin Wilcox is executive director of Upstate United, a nonpartisan, business and taxpayer advocacy coalition focused on growing the Upstate economy.