"Welcome to Dayton–This is an Immigrant Friendly City"

While states like Alabama and Arizona focus on curbing illegal immigration, the city of Dayton, Ohio has a message for legal immigrants: Welcome.

The city passed a plan, “Welcome Dayton: Immigrant Friendly City,” (pdf) earlier this month that aims to help legal immigrants assimilate and thrive. Its recommendations include adopting “immigrant-friendly” law enforcement policies, expanding programs in which volunteers teach English, and reducing barriers to starting businesses.

The report notes:

Communities across America are at a crossroad: to welcome and integrate new residents and help them on a path to citizenship, or to allow old stereotypes fears and preconceptions to hinder future success.

Dayton is banking on the former.

In another recent report, Audrey Singer and Jill Wilson of the Brookings Institution analyze immigration to metropolitan areas over the past ten years. Writing at CNN about their research, they attribute much of the uproar over immigration–Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, and South Carolina passed laws in 2011 related to curbing the illegal variety–to the sputtering economy, not to any grand influx of people.

From 1990 to 2000, 11.3 million immigrants came to the United States. In the next decade, according to recently released Census data, that number fell to 8.8 million. But Singer and Wilson say that an expanding economy during the 1990s meant that immigrantsboth legal and illegal–“were viewed as assets to our labor force and society,” whereas now Americans are more likely to think immigrants will just take jobs from domestic workers.

Singer and Wilson write that Cleveland and Detroit are two other cities discussing whether attracting immigrants can improve their faltering economies. It might take the sort of economic stagnation felt by many Rust Belt cities to make people realize it's a good idea to attract more workers, regardless of where they come from.

Reason on immigration.

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  • Almanian| |

    AY TUK R JERRRRBZ!

  • Freedom of Movement| |

    Deregulate all big-government Land enTitlement programs that draw artificial lines upon the earth to restrict the free movement of people.

    Officer, am I free to gambol about plain and forest?

  • | |

    "AY TUK R JERRRRBZ!"

    Funny every time, or...

    "Am I free to gambol about plain and forest?"

    Funniest every time?

  • KDN| |

    Gamboleo! Gambolea!

  • Mr Whipple| |

    What up with Gambol?

    I must have missed a thread or two. Fill me in.

  • JMW| |

    White Indian keeps asking "Officer, am I free to gambol?"

    Memetic mutation set in afterwards.

  • Samwise Gamgee| |

    Thain, am I free to gambol about the shire?

  • Liberty Enlightening the World| |

    (That would be the statue in New York Harbor.)

    Yo, Dayton took my job!

  • k2000k| |

    That's well and good that Cleveland and Detriot are considering following Daytons footsteps but their real problem is the cancerous tumor called regulation and big goverment.

  • rob| |

    I've lived here in Cleveland for all of my 37 years and I can tell you that attracting more low skilled, low wages workers is a disaster waithing to happen. We have an abundance of that type of labor already. I don't believe in a "if you build it, they will come" philosophy to attract businesses using cheap labor. All this will do is put more people on the govt teet. You are correct, though, k2000k. The goddamn libs having been running this town for 40 years. Therein lies the problem. Even though most of Democrats have been sent to prison in the last 3 years, people continue to show up at the polls and punch the hole next to "D" on the ballot.

  • Rob| |

    Not that I mind immigrants or quality, affordable labor, but the resources could be allocated better elsewhere. Besides, the last thing this town needs is another 20,000 unionized garbage men.

  • BigT| |

    We had Dennis Kucinich chasing away business, Ralph 'hair On fire' Perk, Carl Stokes (first black), Calamity Jane Campbell, and cocaine Mike White. All big govt fans.

  • sevo| |

    rob|10.24.11 @ 8:04PM|#
    "I've lived here in Cleveland for all of my 37 years and I can tell you that attracting more low skilled, low wages workers is a disaster waithing to happen. We have an abundance of that type of labor already."
    So if you have an abundance, how can anyone attract more?

  • | |

    How? Promise more free shitzz tha's how.

  • Suki| |

    Legal and illegal immigration mentioned on the tubez of reason at the same time? With a distinction between the two? Times, they are a changing.

  • Slap the Enlightened!| |

    Well, that's the Great Unmentioned in the immigration sweepstakes. Which immigrants you're getting makes a difference. If you're attracting immigrants from China or India, you have a pretty good chance of getting a couple of lucrative engineering or software firms out of the deal. If you're getting your Immigrants from Mexico or Somalia, not so much....

  • Hugh Akston| |

    Plus the Indians and Chinamen won't go after your pure, white daughters, right Slappy?

  • Beloved Rev. Blue Moon| |

    10 bucks says that StE's ancestors came on a potato boat, stealing decent WASP jobs.

  • | |

    10 bucks says that StE's ancestors came on an potato incest boat, stealing decent WASP jobs fucking their relations.

  • Heroic Mulatto| |

    As the son of an Indo/Sino-Trinidadian and an white American, I can say that we would most certainly go after pure, white daughters.

    Except Slappy's sister/daughter/granddaughter born of incest, of course.

  • | |

    The racists come out every time. The racists, just can't help bringing up race.

  • MWG| |

    Uh... click on Slappy's name. It leads you to A3P, a soft front for white nationalists. Normally you'd be correct, but in this case Slappy really is a racist.

  • Heroic Mulatto| |

    Slappy removed that link awhile back. I don't know if it was due to doctrinal differences or if it was hurting his recruiting efforts, as the full force of the rhetoric on the A3P home page was too much for a prospective recruit to handle in the beginning.

  • Hugh Akston| |

    Yeah, but the Mission Statement still contains the juicy goodness about anti-white discrimination.

  • | |

    No, his name still links to the A3P page, dude.

    Slappy's just a low grade whiner racist. We used to have Dick Hoste around here; he was a top notch racist. And he was persistent; we could beat on him across entire threads.

    Where have all the good trolls gone? I have a theory: I think rectal ate them.

  • Heroic Mulatto| |

    No, his name still links to the A3P page, dude.

    Really? His handle is black and not orange on my browser, nor does clicking on it do anything.

  • sevo| |

    "Really? His handle is black and not orange on my browser, nor does clicking on it do anything."
    Firefox yields orange. And, no, I don't need to click on it to get slappy's racism. Pretty obvious.

  • MWG| |

    The link is still there for me. The site's been revamped recently, bit the mission statement remains the same.

  • | |

    Mongorians knock down my shitty wall!

  • MWG| |

    Hey Slappy! You crazy racist sonuvabitch! How the hell ya doin'?

    *Raises glass*

  • Fist of Etiquette| |

    Dayton: SOFT ON CRIME.

    The streets will run wild with immigrants driving around in their snowmobiles, drinking milk out of bags and blaring their Celine Dion.

  • Beloved Rev. Blue Moon| |

    Hey can we get an official introduction to the new guy?

  • .| |

    You can get cancer.

  • Warty| |

    In past Dayton news

    Seriously, though, Dayton is a hole.

  • Bench Warmer| |

    I followed your link and followed that link to get the full letter. At the bottom of that page were further links. This one caught my eye.
    •Libertarianism or Barrbarism? Roderick Long, Austro-Athenian Empire (2009-05-04): More Crap from the ““Libertarian”” Party (with a hat tip to Soviet Onion in the comments back here). In which the Libertarian Party sends out a press release urging the United States government to ““control the border,”” escalate the use of police-state checkpoints against immigrants, and consider all would-be immigrants diseased until proven healthy.

    I didn't pursue further but WTF dat about?

  • BigT| |

  • WarrenT| |

    And here's a city that wants you to fill out a trip plan before you goes out to the gamboling places.

    http://articles.businessinside.....avel-plans

    Remember that's Executor Class Commentator WarrenT

  • | |

    It wouldn't surprise me at all to see the feds crack down on cities that do this.

  • Hugh Akston| |

    C'mon Epi, this is a municipal measure that has nothing to do with interstate commerce, so the Feds are legally prohibited from interfering, right?

  • | |

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    Good one, Hugh. Thanks, I needed a laugh. I think I might be an ill eagle.

  • | |

    Want to bet? Wait and see, what happens after 2012. Things are a changing. Like never before.

  • Hugh Akston| |

    Actually nothing is changing, that's the problem. It's the same old mission creep and burgeoning leviathan we've always had.

  • Chas| |

    This isn't really a story though. The states have not been passing laws to discourage or encourage LEAGLE migrants only discourage ILLEAGLE migrants. If anything the author should be upset that the gov't is interfeering in the market to help some individules to start a small business and not others.

  • ILL EAGLE| |

    I don't feel so good you guys. Musta been the burritos.

  • F Hart| |

    How does an ill eagle know when he is hungry?

    When his asshole stops burning.

  • octothorpe| |

    He's Hip. He's Cool. He's 50! Dig the earring.

  • | |

    The collar is mauve, too, although the slightly discolored front tooth proves an initial distraction.

  • | |

    "........it's a good idea to attract more workers, regardless of where they come from."

    Attract more workers? We don't have any jobs. Yeah. Great Idea. LOL!!!

  • Heroic Mulatto| |

    Maybe some of those "workers" might actually be entrepreneurs, who will create jobs.

  • | |

    straw man alert.... Neither AL nor AZ chases away immigrants; it's the ILLEGAL variety those states take issue with. Dayton is basically trumpeting what has been US policy since the turn of the last century. Bigger problem for the city is talking about assimilation, learning English, and all the rest. The left never pushes for that; it's why so many things are done in bilingual fashion.

  • Heroic Mulatto| |

    Dayton is basically trumpeting what has been US policy since the turn of the last century.

    Surely, you jest?

  • | |

    give me a break. The country was built on immigrants. Perhaps you have heard of this place called Ellis Island? The interesting part of Dayton's approach is actually saying 'assimilation' out loud; you never hear that from the left.

  • Heroic Mulatto| |

    Perhaps you have heard of this place called Ellis Island?

    Chinese immigration wasn't allowed there either until 1945.

  • MWG| |

    Seriously, the history of US immigration laws look like they were written by white nationalists.

    http://www.umass.edu/complit/aclanet/USMigrat.html

  • PantsFan| |

    That goes for most countries.

  • jtuf| |

    It's good that volunteers are teaching English. We do that in Bergen County, NJ too. I think the price of homes and availability of jobs will be a bigger factor in attracting new residents.

  • Heroic Mulatto| |

    It's good that volunteers are teaching English.

    No, it's not. I teach ESL for a living and I don't need these volunteers lowballing me out of the market. :)

  • | |

    I don't see much difference between something like the Kelo decision and the government accepting and enticing illegal immigration. It's all giving someone's stuff away for political gain and extra tax money.

  • sevo| |

    Episiarch|10.24.11 @ 6:36PM|#
    "Mongorians knock down my shitty wall!"

    Visiting the Great Wall, which was pretty damn impressive, I asked the guide how in hell the Mongolians got through.
    He said: "Easy. The bribed somebody."
    I thought it was funny.

  • Brett L| |

    Bureaucracy, the enabler and destroyer of empire.

  • Bobby H| |

    It's what "Too Tall" Jones called a "co-dependent enabler"

  • Hugh Akston| |

    King of the Hill reference. Well, played, clerks.

  • BigT| |

    Dayton would attract entrepreneurs of all stripes if they would legalize marijuana. Boost the economy too.

  • Grant| |

    Sandi, ever take a shit in Dayton?

  • Escape from Dayton| |

    Having lived in a Dayton suburb for 20 years, I am amazed city leaders are showing this level of insight. About the only thing they did right was their single A minor league baseball team. Course, they may have realized there is a PROMINENT community of educated Indians who are pretty good at using their engineering degrees to create start-ups who then get USAF contracts thanks to the USAF Materiel Command being in Dayton. Now, can they keep out those maple-syrup swilling Canadians?

  • PantsFan the Canuck| |

    Yeah, well maybe we don't want to go there. Ever think of that?

  • PantsFan the Canuck| |

    They probably don't have enough Kraft Dinner

  • Escape from Dayton| |

    At the rate the US is going, I'm thinking about emigrating to Canada. I've heard Vancouver is lovely.

  • Peter A| |

    Immigration is great. Just ask the Algonquins how it worked out for them. The Tibetans, Welsh, Greeks in Asia Minor, Maori, Latvians, have all benefited so much. Just so many stories throughout history of how bringing in lots of people with different cultural values inevitably leads to growth and harmony.

  • Fluffy| |

    And think of those other multilingual shitholes, like Switzerland, Canada, Belgium, and Manhattan.

  • | |

    Does anyone, immigrant or otherwise, thrive in Dayton? Not counting roaches.

  • AlmightyJB| |

    I'm from Columbus and when I think about where the nearest cesspools are at, I think Dayton, Cleveland, and Detroit. No one else wants to live there so don't give them too much credit for being so "accepting".

  • rather| |

    Funny, I just think about the state ;-)

  • AlmightyJB| |

    If we're talking about states that would be Michigan.

  • Fluffy| |

    Dude, no love for Cincinnati or Kentucky?

  • Jeffrey| |

    I think of Youngstown.

  • AlmightyJB| |

    Yeah, that would be on the list too.

  • cynical| |

    Yep.

  • | |

    It might take the sort of economic stagnation felt by many Rust Belt cities to make people realize it's a good idea to attract more workers, regardless of where they come from.

    Not "workers", workers that will produce more value that what it costs to employ them.

  • | |

    Dayton is pretending to be a immigrant Friendly city. Local Priority boards are totally against Legal immigrants or their business.
    I live in Southeast and i know immigrants are treated like Third class citizens. By the way Thanks Miss Connie Nosinger for being so vocal and hateful to immigrants. Keep up the Confrontation against Legal immigrants. Immigrants LOVE Insult and psycho behavior.

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