Steve Tobocman has a lot to say about the positive ways immigrants impact regional economies, and he is armed with studies, statistics, and anecdotes to make his case. These facts, figures, and stories come natural to a person who has spent years working with governments, nonprofits, and foundations. But Tobocman’s also able to make a personal case for supporting immigrants, tying the story of his own family’s success in Michigan to their immigrant roots two generations ago.
“My grandmother instilled upon me that America was a place of refuge where Jews came to seek freedoms and opportunities,” he says. “And I was always brought up instilled with that sense that America was a place that valued freedom and opportunity…I think that’s what inspired me from day one to be involved in community and economic development work.”
These two threads come together in his work with Global Detroit, an organization he started in 2009, with the help of the New Economy Initiative and others, to study the effect of immigration on Detroit’s economy.
That initial study was revealing.
“[The report showed that] immigrants are strong contributors to economic growth and prosperity, and the region should invest in ways to better encourage and include them,” says Tobocman. “That can sound sort of trite, but the reality is it makes hardcore economic sense.”
Tobocman believes this work could be economically and socially transformative for Detroit, and others are buying into that vision. According to recent anonymous survey of community leaders, 92 percent of respondents thought that Global Detroit had put immigrant inclusion on the map as an economic development strategy.
“In America, there hasn’t been a single city to rebound from population loss like the city of Detroit [has experienced] without immigration growth,” Tobocman says.
Population growth is just one of the benefits immigrants bring to Michigan communities. Global Detroit’s research shows that adult immigrants in Michigan are twice as likely as native-born residents to have college degrees, and they are much more likely to be qualified for STEM (science, tehcnology, engineering, and math) jobs that many local employers struggle to fill. Michigan’s immigrants are also twice as likely as the native-born population to start a business.
But retaining immigrants in Detroit and southeast Michigan is just as important as attracting them.
Tobocman acknowledges the “up and out” phenomenon where immigrants come to urban communities before gaining an economic foothold and moving to more affluent suburbs as many Mexican-Americans have done–leaving Southwest Detroit for places like Melvindale and Lincoln Park. But he believes another narrative is possible.
“When business owners and others feel welcomed and feel connected to the opportunities, they can begin to recognize that the urban core is a special place, and it’s a place where they can stay and invest,” he says.
In recent years, Global Detroit has expanded beyond research and developed programs like the Global Talent Retention Initiative, an effort to retain foreign-born college students in the Detroit area after they graduate. The organization also holds workshops for employers interested in hiring foreign-born talent, walking them through the process of obtaining visas and other issues. It has also teamed up with ProsperUS Detroit and the New Economy Initiative to help immigrant business owners take advantage of grants and other resources.
Tobocman takes a very personal satisfaction in the progress he sees in the city of Detroit, where the foreign-born population has grown by 13 percent since 2010, even as the overall population has decreased. Thanks in part to Global Detroit’s advocacy efforts, immigrants have also become a more high-profile part of the city’s entrepreneurial community. In 2017, 20 percent of the winners of the NEIdeas challenge were immigrant-owned business, and for the first time ever, an immigrant-owned business (Baobab Fare) won Comerica’s Hatch Detroit contest.