PORTLAND, Maine — The city is a step closer to setting up a program to help immigrants and disadvantaged Mainers find jobs in the state’s economic hub.
The City Council’s Economic Development Committee on Tuesday evening unanimously approved a proposal to create a three-person office dedicated to connecting people new to the Portland job market to opportunities for jobs and professional training.
The vote came after months of community hearings on the office, which the City Council and Mayor Ethan Strimling named as one of their top priorities for 2016 following a BDN report that found such a body is essential to growing the state and local economy.
Named the Office of Economic Opportunity after some committee wrangling, the proposed body would help immigrants enroll in programs for education and training — like those offered by groups including Catholic Charities and Portland Adult Education. Strimling and committee chairman David Brenerman agreed that the office should also help immigrants and disadvantaged Mainers find jobs by both connecting them with opportunities and encouraging local businesses to hire them.
An endorsement from the city can make all the difference to a new Mainer looking for work, according to South Sudanese community leader Kwan Malwal.
“[If I were a carpenter and] were to apply to [a] woodshop right now, I wouldn’t get that job. It’s just the trust thing is not there,” Malwal said Tuesday. “But if Mayor Ethan was there and said ‘Kwan is a good carpentry guy. Take him,’ there is a good possibility I would get the job.”
As proposed, the office would be overseen by a full-time director, answerable to the city manager, and staffed by two full-time program managers focused on helping new Mainers adjust to life in the state and find work. Including staff salaries, the office would have a start-up a budget of just under $260,000. But more than half of this sum — including the salaries of both program managers — is meant to come from grant funding. And relying on grants has stymied Portland’s immigrant aid work in the past.
This summer, the city shuttered its Office of Refugee Services after failing to win renewal of federal grants that funded the program.
Despite some reservations about how the new office would be financed, there was broad consensus at the committee meeting that better connecting immigrants with jobs is vital to Portland’s economic future.
Helping immigrants more land in the workforce also provides a potential solution to Maine’s looming labor crisis. As an aging state, Mainers are leaving the workforce faster than new workers enter. In Portland, for instance, nearly 10,000 of the city’s roughly 66,000 residents were born outside the United States, according to a recent report, and the city’s population would have shrunk if not for immigration in recent years.
But immigrants — even those highly skilled and experienced — often face challenges finding work here, whether it be from a language barrier, foreign credentials not being recognized in the United States, or simply lack of familiarity with American hiring practices and where to look for work. Recent waves of immigration have been key to the economic success of cities including Atlanta, Georgia and Nashville, Tennessee, and in the new office leaders in Portland’s immigrant communities see the potential for a win-win.
The proposal for the new office will next be reviewed by the full City Council.