This story originally appeared in the March 1, 2024 edition of the LINK Reader. Click here to subscribe.
At 30-years-old, Francisco Tello was offered an exciting opportunity. His then-employer, Mars, producers of M&M’s and other candies, transferred him in 1999 to Waco, Texas, from Querètaro, Mexico, to serve as an industrial engineering manager.
“I felt all of the emotions,” he laughed, “Excited to come to America and learn something new. Nervous to be away from my family and bring my children who did not speak English.”
Global companies have been transferring their employees to the U.S. for decades. Now Northern Kentucky economic experts are suggesting that finding workers outside the country may be the best option to continue fueling a growing workforce.
Grow, baby, grow
A 2023 Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce survey found 73% of its 1,700 members think they should be advocating for improved legal immigration policies to bolster the workforce. From 2007 through 2022, Kentucky’s birth rate per 1,000 people fell from 14 to 11.6, a 17.1% decline, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2021 national estimate and components of change released in December 2021, the population of the United States grew by 392,665, or 0.1%, through 2021, the lowest annual increase since the country’s founding. Nancy Spivey, vice president and talent strategist at the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, said there will likely be more adults than children for the first time in U.S. history. There are several reasons for lower birthrates in the U.S., including higher cost of living, rising income and more women in the workforce.
Tello – now vice president of supply chain management for Perfetti Van Melle North America, producers of Mentos and other sweet treats – said he tries to hire immigrants already in the country when possible. He became a U.S. citizen in 2022.
“Diversity is important to us,” he said. “Diversity of thought, diversity of seeing issues and seeing solutions – we are a global company, so having people with the ability to speak multiple or different languages is an advantage.”
Lee Crume, chief executive of BE NKY Growth Partners, a local economic development group, said companies that follow this practice will have the opportunity for workforce growth, while companies that don’t may get stuck at a plateau.
“You can choose not to grow and do nothing – you’ll get smaller,” Crume said. “If you want to grow, there are two options. There are only two places you can get more [working] people – from the rest of the U.S. or from outside the U.S.”
Crume added it’s much harder to get workers within the country to move to a new location, which has led to companies looking for foreign workers.
The immigrant economy
Nearly half of American immigrants have a college degree, according to Bryan Wright, executive director of Cincinnati Compass, a collaborative project of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, the city of Cincinnati and more than 65 community partners that believe immigrants and refugees are key contributors to a strong regional economy and a diverse and vibrant community.
Immigrants make up 4% of Kentucky’s population, and, according to the American Immigration Council, 79.9% of immigrants are of working age. The AIC also reported that immigrants in the commonwealth have $4.2 billion in spending power and pay $1.4 billion in taxes. Cheryl Besl, vice president of marketing and communications at BE NKY, said 115 foreign-based businesses in Northern Kentucky employ 15,495 people, a mix of foreign- and U.S.-born.
As globalization increases, David McAleese, research director for Be NKY, said Northern Kentucky is focused on creating gateways to bring immigrants to the region.
“Some things that come to mind are our regional local universities. These are students who are getting a good education by traveling abroad. Are they able to stay after obtaining a degree? We need these workers. How do we get them to stay and feel welcome?” he said. “One of the things is we have an aging workforce that is retiring and living longer. We’re not making things in the way that we used to.”
Helping immigrants feel at home
Tello said he has enjoyed living in Erlanger since moving there in 2018.
“Northern Kentucky is a very good family-oriented community. I have found a lot of support and a good-sized Latin community, so there are a lot of products and places that remind me of home,” he said.
He added some things that he feels need to be improved.
“Transportation and job opportunities for people that don’t speak English are challenges I see in the area,” Tello said. “We are looking at ways to address the language barrier at Perfetti Van Melle.”
With the birthrate and American workforce in flux, both Be NKY and Cincinnati Compass agree the best place to look for workers is outside of the U.S.
The Northern Kentucky Chamber created a growth plan in 2016 to build a region in which immigrants would choose to live, focusing on engagement in existing cultural activities, marketing multilingualism as a desired skill, and creating pathways for leadership development to enhance the presence of minorities on boards and committees.
“We need to reduce those barriers (for immigrants),” Wright said. “We need to be able to retain that talent as well; we have to be able to find that talent.”
Tello added it’s important to try to improve the systems for legal immigration – a hot topic for the country today – because it will affect the gross domestic output going forward. Wright said the Kentucky and Ohio chambers of commerce and chambers across the country include immigration in their growth strategies.
Tello said his experience of transferring from Mexico to Waco, Texas, serves as a guide for helping foreign hires. “I like to create visibility and coach them,” he said.
“When I transferred, Mars helped me with the transition. They had people from Mexico and other open-minded people who would invite me to their house.”
In the meantime, those in Northern Kentucky want to make their community as welcoming as possible to retain and recruit as many immigrant workers as possible.
“We want to embrace those differences and cross those lines. And look into how we can be more welcoming,” Spivey said.