- Fact Sheet
Contributions of New Americans in Michigan
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Published
New research from the American Immigration Council highlights the crucial role immigrants play in Michigan’s population growth, labor force, business creation, and consumer spending power. In 2022 alone, immigrants in the state held $23.1 billion in spending power, paid $5.5 billion in federal taxes, and paid $2.6 billion in state and local taxes. The new report, Contributions of New Americans in Michigan, was prepared in partnership with the Michigan Global Talent Coalition.
As of 2022, there were over 687,000 New Americans in Michigan, making up 6.9 percent of the state’s population. Immigrants represented 8.4 percent of Michigan’s working-age population and employed labor force. In 2022, immigrant households in the state earned $31.3 billion in income and contributed $67.8 billion to the area’s gross domestic product (GDP), or 9.9 percent of the total GDP for that year.
The report also features profiles of community members: Bing Goei, President and CEO of Eastern Floral, and Manish Senta, Founder and Managing Director of TekWissen.
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Immigrants are crucial to addressing Michigan's population challenges. In 2023, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer created the nation’s first Chief Growth Officer within state government to focus efforts to grow Michigan’s population, economy, and reputation as the best place to live, work, raise a family, and start a business. The Governor also commissioned the Growing Michigan Together Council to tackle these issues and set the state up for long-term success. Contributions of New Americans in Michigan shows that immigrants are vital to this work and were the source of 57.7 percent of the state’s population growth over the last decade.
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Immigrants are helping the state meet crucial labor force demands. In 2022, immigrants represented 18.6 percent of Michigan’s workers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, despite only comprising 6.9 percent of the state's total population. Immigrants comprised 28.2 percent of all the software developers and 24.3 percent of the mechanical engineers working in Michigan.
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Immigrants launch businesses that create jobs and contribute to our economy. In 2022, there were 46,200 immigrant entrepreneurs whose businesses generated $1.4 billion in business income. The report profiles two of those entrepreneurs: Bing Goei, President and CEO of Eastern Floral in Grand Rapids, and Manish Senta, Founder and Managing Director of TekWissen.