Immigration
The Center focuses on the long-term economic importance of immigrants and immigration and their significant contributions to the region’s success.
The Center began working on immigration in 2017, focusing on the economic importance of immigrants and immigration to the success of the Greater Houston region. Since launching our Strategic Initiative on immigration, we have created an economic model, published two groundbreaking reports, convened focus groups and hosted a number of public discussions. We continue to engage with a broad group of collaborating organizations to address immigration issues, particularly through the lens of Houston’s long-term economic outlook.
REPORT: Houston’s Economic Future: Immigration
We published a groundbreaking 2019 report and followed with a 2021 update, titled Houston’s Economic Future: Immigration. Each elaborates on how Houston’s economic growth is intertwined with its demography. We discuss how immigration has historically fueled the region’s economy and why it will be key to our economic future. In fact, virtually no other region of the country will be affected by immigration more than Greater Houston.
The report and update feature an economic forecasting tool that analyzes how changes in immigration would affect the region’s economy. The findings show curtailing immigration would significantly depress economic growth.
These publications – along with the work done by our partners such as Rational Middle – act as springboards for a community-wide discussion on and support for immigration as an economic asset to the region.
REPORT: 2019 Study
Looking ahead to Houston’s 200th anniversary in 2036, we developed an economic forecasting tool to analyze how changes in immigration would affect the region’s economy.
Our findings confirm that curtailing immigration would significantly depress economic growth.
Collaborative Partners and Projects
Rational Middle and the Center for the United States and Mexico (CUSMX) at Rice University’s Baker Institute have been among our closest collaborators on immigration. The Center worked with these organizations to produce a series of short documentaries , crafted by Rational Middle, to present the facts on immigration and frame them with historical context and personal stories. These videos focus on the challenges facing our country through the eyes of immigrants, municipalities, researchers, business owners, and citizens on the ground who find themselves confronted with this issue.
The Center and CUSMX also collaborated on immigration workshops and summits that featured national scholars and experts. We continue to promote research and fact-based analysis of the need for a rational immigration policy to support economic growth.
In 2020, we hosted a series of webcasts on immigration intended to advance the conversation about immigration and its economic importance in Houston and Texas.
