NYT, Sep 3, gifted article:
For decades, Springfield had been another shrinking Midwestern town with an uncertain future.
Manufacturing plants had shuttered, fueling an exodus. Empty Victorian mansions on Fountain Avenue, erected for industrial barons, stood as relics of the town’s heyday.
The population dwindled to less than 60,000 by 2014, from more than 80,000 in 1960.
Around that time, Springfield crafted a strategic plan to attract business. City leaders pitched the town’s affordability, its work force development programs and its location, smack-dab between Columbus and Dayton and accessible to two interstates.
In 2017, Topre, a major Japanese auto parts manufacturer, picked Springfield for a new plant in a decaying part of town that had been the site of International Harvester, a farm equipment manufacturer that was once the biggest employer.
By 2020, Springfield had lured food-service firms, logistics companies and a microchip maker, among others, creating an estimated 8,000 new jobs and optimism for the future. …
But soon there were not enough workers. Many young, working-age people had descended into addiction. Others shunned entry-level, rote work altogether, employers said.
Haitians who heard that the Springfield area boasted well-paying, blue-collar jobs and a low cost of living poured in, and employers were eager to hire and train the new work force.
McGregor Metal, a family-owned business in Springfield that makes parts for cars, trucks and tractors, was short of workers after investing millions to boost production.
That was published a month ago. Now Jamie McGregor has received death threats considered credible by the FBI, because 10% of his labor force is Haitian and he shared his experiences with the New York Times.
But in any case, if you’re upset about “floods” of low-skilled immigrants getting “dumped” on small towns in the American heartland, you should ask yourself: How else do you propose to revive those declining regions? Would you starve them of the only resource that they could possibly use to revitalize themselves? Would you just tell all the people in those towns to pack up and move to New York and Chicago? What’s your alternative plan? Because I honestly don’t see any other way those places are going to get saved.
Yes. Regional economic development of rust-belt locales is a heavy lift, and immigration is typically part of the solution.