WHEN IMMIGRANTS began arriving in Massachusetts earlier this year in large waves, crowding into hotels and emergency shelters, a sense of crisis took root. We were in uncharted territory as tension grew between Massachusetts’ right to shelter law and the state’s capacity to handle the influx of immigrants.
Massachusetts officials have done admirable work in housing an unexpected surge of arriving families, and state officials have worked diligently to help immigrants obtain authorization to work in the United States. As a Commonwealth, we should be proud of our commitment to supporting refugees seeking a better life.
And yet, amid the clamor surrounding the influx, including some antipathy and fearmongering directed at new arrivals and understandable concerns about the rising costs of housing homeless families, two important points have been lost. One is purely economic: we need immigrants in our workforce to grow our economy. The other is operational: there is a proven, successful process for integrating immigrants into our society that can eliminate chaos, harness the benefits immigrants bring to the Commonwealth, and cost the state less than it is spending now.
First, the economic argument. Immigrant families offer a solution to the state’s workforce shortage. In fact, according to a recent study published by the Project on Workforce at Harvard University, Massachusetts has 290,000 open positions — about two jobs for every person looking for work. That’s a lot of unrealized economic potential and future tax revenue. The immigrant community is ready, willing, and able to fill many jobs, and collectively they will repay the Commonwealth many times over for providing shelter and other resources during their first months in Massachusetts.
Next, the operational model. In response to the surge of immigrants coming to Massachusetts, the state government has relied on a costly, state-funded emergency assistance system to house more than 7,500 families. This solution attempts to keep people safe but does not position them for long-term integration and success. Living in a hotel isolates new arrivals from local communities. Children enrolled in school may be forced to transfer when the family inevitably moves out of the hotel, and uncertainty about a longer-term living solution makes a refugee housed in a shelter a risky hire for an employer who must devote time and money to training new employees.
Earlier this year, the eight resettlement providers in Massachusetts advocated for funding from the new administration to serve the influx of new arrivals by deploying the same, efficient, community-driven model we have used to welcome refugees to Massachusetts for more than 50 years and most recently to resettle thousands of Afghans fleeing the Taliban.
Resettlement work begins with providers securing housing and placing new arrivals into low-cost, private apartments subsidized by public and private funding. Finding places for people to live is a challenge, but resettlement agencies have networks of volunteers and landlords we leverage. Once a client is housed, resettlement staff provide culturally and linguistically appropriate case management, English instruction, and job placement assistance, including a plan to get to and from work each day. Volunteers and community organizations partner with us to help immigrants build relationships in their new neighborhoods.
Massachusetts successfully applied the resettlement process in 2021, when about 2,000 Afghans came to the Commonwealth within five months. Using state, federal, and philanthropic resources, refugee resettlement providers helped Afghan evacuees find apartments, learn English, enter the workforce, meet their neighbors, and integrate into communities across the state. Within two short years, most Afghan evacuees have become tax-paying residents.
Massachusetts is hemorrhaging residents—we have lost almost 110,000 residents since 2020; we have room for people from Haiti, Venezuela, and Central America seeking safety and better lives in our communities. The surge in new families exposes a housing crisis that demands the expertise of organizations like resettlement agencies to help people find housing and gain the means to pay for it.
Thanks to committed leadership, the state has avoided a humanitarian disaster. However, the political and macroeconomic conditions that compel migration are not abating. People will continue to flee difficult situations in their home countries and come to Massachusetts, which is why it’s crucial to shift from an over-reliance on our state-funded emergency assistance system and embrace, expand, and fund a resettlement model that has a proven, decades-long record of successfully welcoming and integrating refugees and other immigrants to our Commonwealth.
Alexandra Weber is the senior vice president and chief advancement officer and Jeff Thielman is the president and CEO of the International Institute of New England.
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