Outside of our Native American Michiganders, everyone in Michigan can trace a story to immigration–be it from the Deep South or Appalachia or from another country. The same migration stories that helped make Michigan a global economic leader with a high middle-class standard of living, are occurring today.
In fact, all of Michigan’s net population growth, for the last 30 years, has been driven by immigration. No U.S. major metropolitan area that has lost population since the 1960s has stabilized or reversed course without robust immigration.
Immigration Boosts the American Economy
Berenice Jumpstarts Career
After five years of working in engineering with General Motors in her native Mexico, Berenice Lopez-Sanchez wanted to reconnect with the career for which she was trained – industrial design. So, she enrolled in the master’s program at the College for Creative Studies. After earning her MFA in integrated design, she wanted to stay in Michigan. But even with her strong automotive background, she was having trouble finding a new position. She sought out resources that could help, including Global Detroit’s Global Talent Accelerator and the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Let’s Detroit program. New tools in hand, she landed a job at Ford Motor Company as an interaction designer. She works with customers to learn how they interact with the vehicle’s technology – how the user does things.
Most of Berenice’s colleagues in her department at Ford are immigrants. They come from Mexico, Lebanon, Hong Kong, Haiti, and Eastern Europe.
“We are people who are not afraid to take risks. We are not afraid to make changes. That is good for the economy because we have a different approach to what we do. We bring a different perspective not only to the work we do but what we do in general. It’s good to have a different point of view. It makes the culture at work richer.”
Approximately 50% of all the graduate students in STEM fields studying at U.S. colleges and universities are international students. In fields critical to the Michigan economy, such as electrical engineering and computer science, 70% of the masters and PhD candidates are international students.
Chening Starts Company
Chening Duker is originally from Ghana and Cameroon in West Africa. After making his way to London, Duker enrolled in the University of Michigan to study computer science. Chening was previously a software engineer at the cloud-based security company, Duo Security, and before that, was a director at Shift, a nonprofit and creator space for students who want to collaborate and build out their ideas, projects and ventures along with others.
In 2020, Chening founded Goodpluck, a fresh produce delivery company serving Detroit. Goodpluck sources high-quality produce for less by working with local farms that are too small to sell to stores. Goodpluck then delivers produce baskets right to the doorstep of customers located in close proximity. And customer feedback has bee extremely positive:
In a recent survey, all of the respondents said they would be disappointed if Goodpluck was no longer available.
In 2022, Chening was accepted into, and completed, TechStars Detroit accelerator, run by JP Morgan.
Notably, of Michigan’s high-tech companies 25% were started by immigrant founders. Across the U.S., 55% of America’s startup “unicorns,” startups valued at a billion dollars or more, have an immigrant (co)founder.
Jimmy Pays It Forward
Jimmy grew up in Taiwan and came to the U.S. as an international student. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in computer engineering, both from the University of Michigan.
After school, Jimmy launched Logic Solutions, a mobile and web technology innovation firm, in a basement in downtown Ann Arbor. The company now has six offices worldwide and has worked with over 2,100 clients ranging from universities, automotive OEMs, industry consortiums, Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, healthcare corporations, and software firms.
Jimmy stays in Michigan because he likes it here. He is proud he has been able to pay back what he got from the U.S., which gave him an opportunity for both an education and employment.
“I can now do the same for others. I feel I can provide job opportunities and provide internships to many international students and opportunities for when they graduate from the university. We are in the digital technology space, which has a global impact. I’m happy that I have been able to grow my company and hence provide opportunities for international students while they are in school and after graduation.”
More than three-quarters (76.7%) of Michigan’s immigrant population is working-aged (16-64) compared to 61.8% of Michigan’s U.S.-born population. Over 50% of the adult immigrant arrivals to Michigan since 2011 possess a four-year degree or more, roughly twice as college-educated as Michigan’s existing workforce.
