Immigrants make up bulk of South Bend-Elkhart region's recent population growth, data shows

SOUTH BEND — New data paired with the South Bend area's first "Welcoming Plan" for immigrants shows that over a recent five-year period, 40.3% of the population growth in the South Bend-Elkhart region was due to immigration.

Funded by a Gateways for Growth grant, local organizations updated a 2017 immigration study to gather new figures for 2014 to 2019. Focused on St. Joseph, Elkhart and Marshall counties, some of the major takeaways from the new report shared at a Thursday night event are:

• In St. Joseph County, 87.2% of population growth from 2014 to 2019 was due to immigration. The figure was 19.1% for Marshall County and 15.1% for Elkhart County.

• While 36,000 immigrants made up 6.9% of the region's total population in 2019, they comprised 9% of the employed population and 12.9% of manufacturing workers, 9.8% of education workers, and 9.2% of workers in science, technology, engineering and math. They helped to preserve or create 1,700 local manufacturing jobs that otherwise would have been moved elsewhere or eliminated by 2019.

• In 2019, immigrant households in the region earned about $1 billion and contributed $3.8 million or 9% of the area's gross domestic product. They held $786.3 million or 7.6% of the region's spending power that year.

• Immigrants made up 9.2% of business owners in 2019 despite comprising 6.9% of the population. About 1,600 immigrant entrepreneurs made $43.3 million in income that year.

• More than half, 54%, of immigrants came to the U.S. from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. The other leading areas of origin were India and southwest Asia at 7.5%, east Asia at 7.3%, southeast Asia at 5.4% and South America at 5.1%.

South Bend groups share new Welcoming Plan

In response to the influx of new residents, the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership partnered with the city of South Bend and a group called Welcoming Michiana to create the second Welcoming Plan in Indiana, joining nearly 70 municipalities nationwide.

"This is a movement of communities who see strength rather than threats in our new neighbors," said Alivia Haibach, whose organization Welcoming America works with chapters across the U.S. to foster a sense of belonging and economic opportunity for new Americans.

With residents' help, the new plan strives to address some of the problems highlighted by the data and by immigrants' stories.

Immigrants often struggle to find work in line with their education and experience. About a quarter aren't proficient English speakers. And many say they'd benefit from a central location where immigrants services are offered.

"We know that we're going to need more new residents in the future as we look to continue our growth and fill many, many jobs that people are coming in here and investing in our region," South Bend Mayor James Mueller said Thursday.

Read the full report and welcoming plan at https://southbendin.gov/welcoming/.

Immigrants to South Bend share their stories

The event highlighted the stories of three immigrants, including Dr. Rose Alyousif, who came to South Bend with her husband and three daughters in 2013 as refugees from Iraq.

A physician in Iraq, she and her family left for some years after feeling like they didn't belong. But she soon found purpose as an Arabic medical interpreter at local hospitals, and now she's a professor of anatomy and physiology at Indiana University South Bend.

"I found that when I engaged with the community, I was able to find a lot of people who believed in me and supported me," she said.

Mark Spence came to Illinois from South Africa for a job opportunity and in search of more social services for his daughter with autism. Charmed by the Midwestern hospitality that greeted him, he's since moved to South Bend and is now the vice president of technology and manufacturing at Hoosier Tire, a division of the global Continental Tire company.

And Juan Constantino, whose family brought him to the region from Mexico without legal documentation when he was 5 years old, said he expected to work at a restaurant and move up the ranks to a management role.

But Constantino was one of two undocumented students to whom Holy Cross College offered a full-ride scholarship. Today, after the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals process began in 2013 and he got authorization to work, he's the director of the immigrant services nonprofit La Casa de Amistad.

Selami Buzluk, who attended Thursday's event, moved from Turkey to Alabama with his wife, Lutfiye, to start his master's degree in engineering in August 2020. The two soon had a baby girl, Ikra.

Then a job opportunity arose for Buzluk, who's 28, in South Bend. With his J-1 exchange visitor visa, he's worked at Lawson-Fisher Associates, a South Bend-based engineering consultant, since May.

The success stories of the three immigrants who spoke left him feeling empowered, he said.

He and his family love the city. They were stunned to watch the leaves turn brilliant hues of red, orange and yellow along the banks of the St. Joseph River this fall.

"It looked kind of like heaven," Buzluk said.

Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Data shows immigrants led population growth in South Bend-Elkhart region