Study: Immigrants contributed $1.7 billion to Syracuse GDP in 2014

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Immigrants living in the Syracuse area in 2014 contributed $1.7 billion to the metro area’s gross domestic product (GDP).

That’s among the findings in a “year-long” study that CenterState CEO and the New American Economy (NAE) released on Feb. 21.

The report documents the “critical” impact that “new Americans” have on the economies of Syracuse and Buffalo, CenterState CEO said in the report.

The New York City–based New American Economy describes itself as “[bringing] together more than 500 Republican, Democratic, and Independent mayors and business leaders who support immigration reforms that will help create jobs for Americans today,” per its website.

The research focuses on the contributions immigrants and refugees make through population growth, workforce participation, tax contributions, entrepreneurship, and spending power.

The organizations released the report in conjunction with the launch of “Map the Impact” — an NAE campaign to “highlight the power” of immigrants in communities across the country through state- and sector-specific data available for each of the nation’s 435 Congressional districts.

“Refugees and immigrant populations are economically important to Central New York as they contribute to the local labor force, and to the tax base as the region battles population loss. They also help reduce rates of vacancy in the housing market, creating a stabilizing effect to the issues of urban and rural blight,” Dominic Robinson, VP of economic inclusion at CenterState CEO, contended in the report. “As Central New York business leaders seek to participate in global markets and compete with other regions for talent, the rich cultural diversity created by refugees and immigrants helps foster greater global fluency and connections, resulting in a competitive advantage for the region.”

Key findings for Syracuse

Besides the GDP contributions in 2014, the foreign-born population contributed $140.4 million in federal taxes and $93.9 million in state and local taxes, in 2014, and held $607.8 million in spending power, the report found.

 Immigrant residents in 2014 also contributed $89.2 million to Social Security and $22.4 million to Medicare.

Between 2000 and 2014, immigrants and refugees helped offset decades of population decline in the Syracuse region, the research found. The U.S.-born population “stayed stagnant”, but the foreign-born population grew about 42 percent.

In the same time period, the increase in the foreign-born population raised the total housing value in metro Syracuse by $406.5 million.

The research also found that 1,681 foreign-born entrepreneurs generated $22.3 million in business income in Syracuse during 2014.

In addition, by 2014, the 40,815 foreign-born residents in the metro Syracuse area had helped create or preserve 1,877 local manufacturing jobs that would have otherwise vanished or moved elsewhere, the report contended.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com