Oldest-in-the-nation Maine should use its Yankee ingenuity to attract new residents, Yankee or not, according to two economic development groups.
The Maine State Chamber of Commerce and the nonprofit Maine Development Foundation on Thursday called for state policymakers and business leaders to find ways to attract new immigrants to the state, as a matter of economic necessity.
“Our current demographics present a real threat to our economy and our way of life,” states a report co-authored by the two groups. “Fortunately, our demographics are not set in stone.”
Those demographics show a dwindling population, with deaths outpacing births in all but two of 16 counties in 2015 and steady declines in the state’s working-age population.
International migration has boosted the population in many parts of the state, while only southern counties have seen more people moving in than moving out in recent years. But the state continues to grow older, with the highest median age in the country, at 44.6.
The report recommends that policymakers and the business community set specific goals and identify programs in other parts of the country that have been effective at both attracting and integrating new immigrants to the state.
“Helping new arrivals participate fully in our economy is good for Maine and good for them, and can help make us a more attractive destination for the others we need to attract,” the report states.
The report lays out a stark picture of Maine’s demographics, showing the state has the smallest foreign-born population in New England. Maine has a much less diverse population than the national average, with a smaller share of residents under 18 and a larger share of those over 65.
In many of the state’s largest and fastest-growing industries, more than one-fourth of employees are over the age of 55, the report showed.
Health care and social assistance, where employment is expected to grow about the fastest of all industries, has about 28,771 workers over the age of 55, or about 25 percent of the total.
The report states that Maine has dealt poorly with past waves of migration to the state, as newcomers from Europe and Canada “faced initial opposition.”
The report did not mention Gov. Paul LePage by name but noted that the fight his administration began over providing General Assistance, an emergency aid program jointly funded by state and municipal governments, to people seeking asylum in Maine “brought a number of issues to the forefront.”
Some of those issues received national attention last week in a New York Times story about how new immigrants perceived and reacted to LePage’s remarks, suggesting that his comments deterred some.
While the report does not refer specifically to the governor’s remarks or policies, it states that Maine businesses’ and policymakers’ acceptance of cultural changes can help in attracting new workers from beyond Maine’s borders.
“To do so, we need to be receptive to the fact that many of the people who will grow our population, workforce and economy will look different than most of us and have different backgrounds and cultures,” the report states.
The report makes nine suggestions about how the state should go about doing that, including expanding the work of the Portland-area New Mainers Resource Center, ensuring that immigrants from abroad have access to English language training, and that the effort should start with policymakers and business leaders getting on the same page.
“In the long run,” the report states, “we need to forge consensus around the importance of new Mainers in growing our workforce and economy.”
Read the full report below.