Maine looks to migrant surge to remedy worker shortage

Maine Gov. Janet Mills and a state lawmaker who immigrated from Somalia unveiled a proposal on Friday to strive to resolve the state’s severe worker shortage by tapping swiftly rising immigrant communities.

Maine historically has had among the many smallest immigrant populations within the nation. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, solely about 4% of the state’s residents have been born outdoors the U.S.

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That has been step by step altering as tens of hundreds of residents descended from Somalia and different African international locations have made properties in Portland and Lewiston, two of the state’s largest cities. Those arrivals helped push up the share of foreign-born residents by a couple of share level between 2000 to 2022, in accordance to census figures.

Gov. Janet Mills speaks at her inauguration ceremony, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023, on the Civic Center in Augusta, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

The Office of New Americans is proposed in a invoice by state Rep. Deqa Dhalac, the primary Somali immigrant to turn into mayor of a U.S. metropolis in 2021, when she took workplace in South Portland. She was elected to the Maine Legislature final yr. Dhalac and Mills say the invoice would handle shortages in vital industries together with well being care, schooling and building.

“Improving how Maine introduces and integrates New Americans into its communities and economy is viewed as one key strategy to address the state’s workforce needs, as attracting and retaining new workers is a priority for Maine’s economic future,” they mentioned in a information launch.

Under Dhalac’s invoice, among the many new workplace’s main actions can be offering pathways for immigrant staff to receive skilled accreditation and licenses. The workplace would even be answerable for “engaging with businesses to increase employment, retention and advancement of immigrant employees,” the proposal states.

The invoice is due for a public listening to on Jan. 30.

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At least 18 different states have workplaces or employees centered on bringing immigrants into the workforce, together with in New England, the place officers are dealing with housing shortages whereas attempting to welcome rising numbers of immigrants fleeing their homelands for the Northeast.