Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
Dayton, Ohio, is another city that is trying to combat economic and
population decline by encouraging immigration. Dorothy Balser,
manager of refugee resettlement services for Catholic Social
Services, said that finding jobs for refugees is sometimes a struggle – Dayton’s unemployment is nearly 11 percent – but that refugees have generally been able to fit into the Dayton community. An AP article has more:
…While states including Alabama, Georgia and Arizona, as well as some cities, have passed laws in recent years cracking down on illegal immigrants, Dayton officials say they will leave that to federal authorities and focus instead on how to attract and assimilate those who come legally.
Other cities, including nearby Columbus and Indianapolis, have programs to help immigrants get government and community help, but Dayton’s effort has a broader, and more urgent, feel.
Mayor Gary Leitzell told the city commission before the vote that immigrants bring “new ideas, new perspectives and new talent to our workforce. … To reverse the decades-long trend of economic decline in this city, we need to think globally.”
Hard-hit for years by the struggles of U.S. manufacturing, particularly in the auto industry, the recession pounded Dayton, which as the Wright Brother’s hometown calls itself “the birthplace of aviation.”
Thousands of jobs were lost with the crippling 2009 exodus to Georgia of NCR (formerly National Cash Register), one of Dayton’s signature corporations, after 125 years, and by the 2008 shutdown of a General Motors plant in suburban Moraine.
Dayton’s unemployment is nearly 11 percent, 2 percent higher than the national average, while population has fallen below 142,000, down 15 percent from 2000. Meanwhile, the city’s official foreign-born population rose 57 percent, to 5,102, from 2000 to 2010, according to census figures…
…Dorothy Balser, manager of refugee resettlement services for Catholic Social Services, said that finding jobs can be a struggle, but that refugees have generally been able to fit into the Dayton community. She thinks the Welcome Dayton plan will have a “natural positive effect” on those already here without causing a significant rise in numbers immediately… Read more here
Dayton strikes me as a more logical site where we can safely pair refugee resettlement with efforts to combat population decline, as opposed to places with higher crime rates, such as Buffalo, New York.
