- Fact Sheet
New Americans in Elkhart, Marshall and St. Joseph Counties
Published
New research from the American Immigration Council shows that immigrants in the South Bend - Elkhart region in Indiana paid over $258.0 million in taxes and held $783.6 million in spending power. The new report, New Americans in Elkhart, Marshall, and St. Joseph Counties, was prepared in partnership with the City of South Bend, South Bend – Elkhart Regional Partnership, and Welcoming Michiana, a program of the United Religious Community of St. Joseph County.
The report also features four profiles of community members: Aileac Deegan, Juan Cervera, Nayo Ulloa, and Dr. Rose Alyousif.
In 2019, approximately 36,000 immigrants lived in the South Bend - Elkhart region, representing 6.9% of the total population. Between 2014 and 2019 the total population of the South Bend - Elkhart region increased by 1.6%, with 40.3% of the region’s population growth attributable to immigrants. This means that the population would have grown at a slower rate without immigrants moving to the area.
The report was produced as part of the Council’s and Welcoming America’s Gateways for Growth Challenge, which includes tailored research on the local immigrant population.
For more information, see our press release.
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Immigrants are helping the region meet its rising labor needs in key industries. While making up 6.9% of the region’s overall population, immigrants accounted for 12.9% of manufacturing workers, 9.8% of education workers, 9.4% of health care and social assistance workers, and 9.1% of hospitality workers.
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Immigrants are a significant portion of the region’s entrepreneurs. Immigrants represented 9.2% of business owners in the South Bend - Elkhart region in 2019. About 1,600 immigrant entrepreneurs generated $43.3 million in business income for the region.
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Immigrants in the region help create or preserve local manufacturing jobs. Immigrants strengthened the local job market by helping companies keep jobs on U.S. soil. They helped preserve or create 1,700 local manufacturing jobs that would have otherwise been eliminated or moved elsewhere by 2019.
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Immigrant households support the federal safety net. The immigrant community contributed $110.6 million to Social Security and $29.7 million to Medicare in 2019.