Editorial: Nurture our Central Mass. superpower
In the British elections this July, the conservative party was swept out of power after more than a decade of rule. While the reasons were many, the New York Times in its post-mortem analysis said the party failed to live up to its promises following the Brexit split with the European Union, which party leaders claimed would help stem the flow of immigrants into the country.
Turns out, most British voters are largely fine with individual immigrants they know, especially the doctors and nurses who have joined their understaffed National Health Service. However, the bulk of voters still oppose the overall concept of immigration, and numbers showing still-rising levels of immigration into their country were too much for the conservative party to overcome. To no one’s surprise, immigration is shaping up to be one of the top issues in this year’s U.S. elections, with both presidential candidates talking up their toughness on the southern border.
While politically immigration is fraught with emotion, the economic benefit is straightforward. Economically powerful countries like China, Japan, and most of Europe will suffer a decline in population in the coming decades, threatening their economic vitality. With the allure of the American dream, the U.S. has always been an attractive country for people from all over the world. The most important resource in the growth of an economy is its working-age population, so the steady flow of immigrants into this country is truly America’s superpower, especially as low birth rates signal a population drop. In Worcester, a city defined by the flow of immigrants over the centuries, and throughout Central Mass., immigrants start businesses at a higher rate than natural-born residents, according to a 2018 joint report by the Worcester Regional Research Bureau and Worcester Business Journal. This is a significant factor in why voters tend to be fine with the individual immigrants they know and see contributing to their community, even as they may oppose the overall concept.
Mass. is about to take a step toward helping many of those immigrant-owned businesses succeed. As Staff Writer Mica Kanner-Mascolo writes in her cover story “Breaking down barriers”, the state’s Supplier Diversity Office (SDO) is set to loosen the citizenship requirement for companies to achieve certification as a minority-owned, woman-owned, or veteran-owned business, which qualifies them for more projects backed by public money. Applicants still have to be in the country legally, and the businesses have to be in good standing; but business owners will no longer have to wait for the lengthy citizenship process, which can take 10 years or longer, to remove a barrier to growing their companies.
Of course, immigration remains a polarizing issue, which can create shorter-term headaches, such as competition for housing and educational resources. This makes the overall concept of immigration more vexing. When WBJ conducted an online poll over whether Mass. should ease the citizenship requirements for SDO certifications, nearly 90% of readers said no. Despite this result, we think the change should be welcomed. We need to grow, not shrink, our workforce and help businesses thrive. Immigrants are our country’s superpower and can help us remain the #1 economy in the world.
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