By Anna Crosslin, President & CEO  

The following anecdote is a true story from an acquaintance. One evening, as he was driving back home to St. Charles, he was pulled over on I-70 by a Missouri Highway Patrolman. The trooper asked to see his driver’s license and then, most likely upon noticing his Spanish accent, requested proof of American citizenship. My friend responded that he didn’t have his passport. He asked if his PX card (since he is a retired US Air Force Colonel) would do instead. You see, he was born in Puerto Rico. Spanish is the official language there, and Puerto Ricans are US Citizens!

Readers may wonder whether my friend is unique among foreign-born Missourians and the answer is “surprisingly not.” As revealed in the following US census data, our foreign-born population is small, estimated at approximately 3.3% of Missouri’s population. And it is largely comprised of US citizens or those on their way to citizenship. Among them, more than 95% indicate they speak English very well or better. And, perhaps most surprising of all, we have more residents from Asia than from Latin America!

So, why is there such a big ruckus in the Missouri State legislature about passing immigration legislation to ferret out illegal immigrants and penalize them – be it in housing, employment, or on the highways? It is certainly not because there are substantial numbers of illegal immigrants who are overwhelming us!

Let’s consider employment for instance. Approximately 4.2% of Missouri’s civilian workforce is foreign-born. If we refer back to my earlier comment, then we can say that most of those workers are here legally – either as US citizens or on the citizenship path. The Missouri legislature’s efforts to pass employment verification measures to “curb” illegal employment will actually drive up workplace administrative costs, since verification will need to be completed for any new employee. Meanwhile, any potential new hire, including a native-born American, can run the risk of losing a job opportunity due to foul ups in a federal electronic verification system that is at this point fraught with erroneous data mismatches. So, these proposed legislative changes will prove costly to employers and in fact to all of us, and, for what purpose in the end?

In many Missouri communities, our immigrants are the backbones of our communities, representing a disproportionately large share of our small business owners and filling a variety of professional positions, especially in the medical, information technology, and engineering sectors. We should be welcoming and embracing our immigrants. They are not a problem but are in fact part of the solution of how we as a state can revitalize our economy creating opportunity for us all.

Do you want to toss in your “two cents” regarding America’s current immigration debate? All of us can learn from the pro- and anti-immigration debate. And how do immigrants themselves feel about the current level of undocumented in the US? Please share with all of us!

St. Louis has hundreds of new residents from around the world! In the past two months, staff and volunteers of the International Institute have ably resettled 176 newcomers from Azerbaijan to Vietnam, and from Burma to Somalia. Fully half of the refugees the Institute resettled in the last year arrived in just two short months!

Ask a question about these or other newcomers – or about immigration in general. Or tell us a story about an interesting immigrant whom you have met. We’d like to hear from you!

My most recent immigrant family member is my mom who was born in Japan. More than 50 years ago, she married my dad, an American serviceman stationed in Japan during the Korean War. I was born there, and we all came to the US in 1952. We moved from air base to air base so there wasn’t time to attend English classes – even if they existed. But she was luckier than many immigrants. Since my father spoke Japanese fluently, he could teach her some English and help orient her. But he was busy, and he died when I was just a child. Today, even after 50 years, she can struggle with English, especially when under pressure. I think integration is never easy; it’s just different from generation to generation.