NEWS
RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Immigrants
are Contributing to Arkansas Communities and the Economy
New
Report Shows that Immigrants are Important to Arkansas’s Future
LITTLE
ROCK, Ark. (January 8, 2013) – A new study, released today by the Winthrop
Rockefeller Foundation, shows that immigrants represent a small but growing
part of Arkansas’s population and are having a positive impact on the state
through their investment in communities and productivity to Arkansas’s economy.
The
three-volume report, A Profile of
Immigrants in Arkansas 2013, describes the demographic characteristics of
the state’s immigrant population, their economic and fiscal impact, and the
state’s Marshallese community. The report – produced by researchers from the
Migration Policy Institute, the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Arkansas – is a follow-up
to a similar study in 2007.
“The
Foundation’s primary goal with this study,” says Dr. Sherece West-Scantlebury,
Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation president and CEO, “is to provide relevant data
to help community, business, and policy leaders better understand the
population of immigrants and Marshall Islanders in Arkansas.”
According
to the report:
Arkansas immigrants
are a small but growing population in the state.
- Arkansas’s
share of immigrants (approximately 5 percent of the state’s population) is much
smaller than the national average of 13 percent.
- Arkansas
ranked fourth among the states in immigrant population growth from 2000 to
2010, with the foreign-born population increasing by 82 percent.
Immigrants are
integrating well in Arkansas, just as previous generations have done.
- The
length of settlement for Arkansas immigrants is expanding: in 2010, 57 percent
had lived in Arkansas (or elsewhere in the US) for 10 years or more, compared
with 51 percent in 2000.
- Half
of Latino immigrants and two-thirds of non-Latino immigrants owned their own
homes.
The native-born population is aging
and immigrants are now keeping Arkansas vibrant and competitive.
- The
Latino immigrant share of workers doubled from 2 to 4 percent between 2000 and
2010. Immigrant Latino men have the highest employment rate of any immigrant or
native-born group: 88 percent.
- For
every dollar the state spent on services to immigrant households, it received
$7 in immigrant business revenue and tax contributions in 2010.
- The
economic contribution of immigrants in 2010 was $3.9 billion. The economic
contribution of immigrants has grown considerably since 2004, when their total
impact was just $2.9 – and should continue to grow as immigrants and their
children increase their share of the state’s total population and workforce.
“The
economic benefit is only part of the story we want to tell,” says Dr.
West-Scantlebury. “Immigrants are long-term residents of the state and are
contributing to stronger neighborhoods and vibrant communities.”
In
addition to the data around immigrants, the report also takes a comprehensive
look at Arkansas’s Marshallese population. Arkansas has the second-largest
Marshallese population outside the Republic of Marshall Islands, after the
state of Hawaii. Most of the Marshallese in the state live in Northwest
Arkansas.
The
updated data in this report supports the Foundation’s mission to improve the
lives of all Arkansans by closing the educational and economic gaps that leave
many families behind. The study is part of the Foundation’s continuing commitment
to identify and support those factors that can help the state move the needle
from poverty to prosperity.
“We
encourage our state’s community leaders and policymakers to use the report to
engage in data-driven conversation about the positive impact of immigrants on
our state’s communities and economy,” says Dr. West-Scantlebury. “We need to invest in the future of immigrants if the state is to
benefit from their culture, productivity, and economic contributions.”
To
read the three volumes of A Profile of
Immigrants in Arkansas 2013 commissioned by the Winthrop Rockefeller
Foundation that analyze the population of immigrants and Marshall Islanders in
Arkansas, visit www.wrfoundation.org
About the Winthrop Rockefeller
Foundation
For
more than 35 years, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation has worked to make a
difference by helping to build and sustain the organizations that serve and strengthen
Arkansas. Through grantmaking and
strategic partnerships, we are working even harder to help close the economic
and education gaps that leave too many Arkansas families in persistent poverty.
Contacts
Central
Arkansas – Regan Gruber Moffitt
(501)
265-9562
rmoffitt@wrfoundation.org
Northwest
Arkansas – Sarah Donaghy
(501)
231-5781
sdonaghy@wrfoundation.org
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