Economic Contributions of Immigrants

The economic contributions of immigrants who live in Fresno and the Central Valley are numerous and significant. The topic is one of the most important but less understood aspects of the local immigrant experience.

In the discussion that follows we present an introduction to the discussion of this issue, focusing on contemporary immigration. We are generating other content that offer historical perspectives on the presence and contributions of immigrants in Fresno.

The Regional Economy: The Importance of Agriculture and Immigrant Labor

In a 2015 report, the County of Fresno clearly affirms the importance of agriculture in the regional economy and the impact it has on non-agricultural economic activity (http://www.co.fresno.ca.us/Home/ShowDocument?id=19650):

Fresno County’s economic base has historically been and continues to be agriculture. In 2014, the agricultural industry provided an estimated 49,100 jobs, making up 13.6 percent of all classified industry jobs. The production value of agricultural products in Fresno County in 2012 was over $6.59 billion. The County continues to lead the State and the Nation in being number one in the value of agricultural production. With an economic multiplier of 3.5, agriculture brings economic stability and drives growth in the regional economy.

The reliance of local agriculture on immigrant labor is well known and further documented by a the University of Southern California Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, which points out that while only 11% of all employees in Fresno County work in agriculture, the proportion is far higher among immigrants (http://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/731/docs/California_Immigrant_Integration_Scorecard_web.pdf):

immigrants are more likely to be employed in agriculture (29%) with lower shares in other industries – professional services (19%) and retail trade (13%). This indicates high labor market segmentation between immigrants and U.S.-born non-Hispanic residents [.]

According to the same study, immigrants employed in agriculture represent a vulnerable population due to the undocumented status of some and the less than welcoming environment they have found in the region over time:

An agricultural core of California, Fresno is a destination for many immigrant laborers. This includes a large share of undocumented workers (37% of Latino immigrant adults in Fresno are without documentation), which makes them more vulnerable to lower wages, labor abuses, and other social instability. Rates of naturalization among those who are eligible remain low; suggesting that the region may not see the vital contributions of its immigrant population and so has not built the infrastructure needed to facilitate immigrants’ naturalization. As in other places where the immigrant population is less diverse, the mainstream (and often negative, racialized) images of Latino immigrants slows integration. Fresno both accepts immigrants as necessary to its economic success and stops short of fully welcoming them to the region. The exception here is the Hmong refugee population; Fresno is home to a large number of Hmong residents who have built a strong network of organizations trying to address their needs as they integrate into the area.

Further information on the labor market distribution of the immigrant workers by industry is provided by the USC study, which finds that immigrant and native born workers are unevenly distributed in some industries. For example, immigrants constitute 29% of agricultural industry employees but only 3% of native born workers are employed in the same industry. 19% of immigrants are employed in Professional and Related Services, whereas as 35% of native born workers are employed in this industrial category. In Retail Industry there is parity, as 13% of both immigrant and native born workers find employment in this industry. 8% of immigrants are employed in Manufacturing, while this is true for 7% of U.S. born workers. 6% of immigrants are employed in Wholesale Trade and this is applies to 4% of native born workers.

Minority and Immigrant Business Owners in Fresno

The economic contributions of immigrants in Fresno is not limited only to involvement in the labor force or, more specifically, in agriculture. Immigrants and minority groups in this region and other parts of the nation have a rich entrepreneurial tradition and a strong impact on economic activity.

The latest Survey of Business Owners, conducted by the Census Bureau (https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2012/econ/2012-sbo.html) documents the impact that minority business owners have in the Fresno region. The SBO information, released in 2016, finds that there are 59,569 firms in Fresno County. It also documents the following number of minority owned businesses and the total amount of sales for each social group:

The SBO data further illustrates the characteristics of minority owned businesses as being mostly small enterprises, usually family-run businesses. Nonetheless, they have a total of 29,939 paid employees and have an annual payroll of $737,657,000.