Local organizations launch South Bend regional welcoming plan for immigrants

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Local organizations and the City of South Bend are launching a new welcoming plan for immigrants in the region.

Thursday night, the groups walked through new economic data showing just how much our area has benefitted from immigrants, or new Americans.

In recent years, the report shows nearly 90% of the population growth in St. Joseph County has come from new Americans.

In 2019, immigrant households made up about one out of every $10 in spending power in South Bend.

South Bend Mayor James Mueller stated, "If you take a longer view, a much larger portion of our population has come here through immigration. So, when we were thriving a century ago, that was a wave of immigrants that helped build South Bend. And now that we're growing again, we know that immigrants are going to be an important part of our future growth."

The new South Bend regional welcoming plan includes three needs for the community to help new residents thrive.

That's more programming to help immigrants find work, programs to improve language skills, and an established central location for immigrants to find services.