By Summary:
- Immigrants reshape Springfield, boosting the local economy but also causing growing pains.
- Local officials and police have refuted false claims about Haitian immigrants.
- Springfield’s population growth brings both challenges and opportunities.
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – Rose Joseph and Banal Oreus took different paths from Haiti to this struggling Midwestern industrial city, which now finds itself unexpectedly at the center of the U.S. presidential race.
Joseph arrived in 2022 after fleeing violence in Haiti, first landing in Florida two years earlier, and later moving north upon hearing about job opportunities. Oreus, after stops in Brazil, Portugal, and Mexico over an eight-year stretch, was drawn to Springfield in 2023 by family and friends who had already found there way there. “The main motivation was jobs and work opportunities,” said Joseph, who now works at an Amazon warehouse and does seasonal tax preparation, during an interview conducted weeks before Tuesday night’s presidential debate.
The arrival of Joseph, Oreus, and an estimated 15,000 other Haitian immigrants over the last three years has transformed this city of 58,000, offering hope of economic revival while also presenting challenges. It has also unwittingly thrust Springfield into the middle of a national conversation about immigration, the economy, and race, with Republican candidate Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance spreading what local police and city officials describe as false claims of crimes and horrific acts allegedly committed by Haitians.
After a half-century of decline, data show the rapid population rebound has had notable impact in Springfield. Enrollment in Medicaid, federal food assistance, and welfare programs surged. So did rents have increased, and vehicle accidents have risen, including a tragic incident last year when a Haitian immigrant without a U.S. driver’s license crashed into a school bus, killing 11-year-old Aiden Clark and injuring 26 other children.
What was happening in Springfield was “a very real example of this particular concern, straight from the horse’s mouth,” Vance said.
Powell responded that those effects might be apparent in some areas but explained that, overall, the rising labor supply in recent years had helped grow the economy and slow inflation. And in the long run, he said, the impact of immigration was “kind of neutral” as markets adapt.
More recently, Vance and other Republicans have amplified false claims raised by some residents during weekly city commission meetings. However, city commissioners publicly refuted these claims, noting that the vast majority of Haitian immigrants are in the country legally and have the right to live where they choose.
Springfield police also issued a strong response: “There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” their statement read. “Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes.”
Despite this, Trump repeated these falsehoods, including the baseless claim that immigrants are eating pets, during his debate with Democratic opponent Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday night.
The Biden White House earlier on Tuesday condemned the viral misinformation, saying such remarks sought to divide Americans through lies and was based on racism.
‘A ROCKY SEASON’
Data from Springfield’s experience of the last few years paints a nuanced picture of the effects of rapid population growth. Local rents increased at the third-fastest rate among U.S. cities from May 2022 through the end of 2023, rising at an annualized rate of 14.6%, data from Zillow shows. However, the market also appears to be stabilizing, with rents this year growing at a modest 3.2% rate, 68th fastest among 400 cities sampled.
Wages in Springfield were slow to take off during the post-pandemic job market reshuffling, according to data from Chmura Economics & Analytics’ JobsEQ. However, during the period of increased Haitian immigration, local wages grew at an annual rate of over 6% for more than two years, twice the national rate.
As Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested, this trend may have run its course. With the national labor market cooling, wage growth in Springfield is down to 1.1%. Although job openings remain strong, the pace of hiring has slowed, and the unemployment rate has started to rise—faster here than in the rest of the country.
The exact number of Haitian immigrants in Springfield remains unclear. Estimated at as many as 20,000 in the letter Vance read to Powell, city officials have since cut that to between 12,000 and 15,000 based on driver’s license and state identification data. This marks a significant increase from approximately 3,500 in just a few years ago to between 12,000 and 15,000, a significant increase not yet reflected in Census data. This jump is comparable to around 1.6 million new arrivals in New York City. As a result, there are growing pains and even outright tensions, often manifested in harsh rhetoric during city commission open comment periods. Notably, a small group of white supremacists marched through the city during a jazz festival in mid-August.
A growing population “could absolutely have a long-term benefit,” Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said in an interview. “But we are in a rocky season… The most difficult thing for myself as mayor, the five city commissioners, and the city manager is navigating through this.”
That includes cooling some local tempers while trying to find funds for extra police, fire, and healthcare personnel, as well as French and Creole translators to accommodate the growing immigrant community.
Bansal Oreus helps other Haitian immigrants with government documents at the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Springfield, Ohio, U.S., August 15, 2024. REUTERS/Howard Schneider
‘WE NEEDED A WORKFORCE’
A Biden immigration parole program has allowed about 205,000 Haitians into the U.S. as of August, with hundreds of thousands more residing under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which was granted to people from Haiti, a country plagued by poverty and violence.
Recent and longtime immigrants said family connections, social networks, word-of-mouth, and the search for higher wages and lower living costs helped draw people to Springfield.
“My friend and I heard about Ohio and Indiana, where there were many job opportunities, so we made a plan and came,” said Rose Joseph, who also volunteers at a local Haitian cultural center and is pursuing a social work degree at Clark State Community College.
A view shows vacant office buildings in downtown Springfield, Ohio, U.S., August 13, 2024. REUTERS/Howard Schneider.
Joseph, who initially entered the U.S. on a tourist visa, has applied for asylum and remains legally in the country under TPS—a status that Trump sought to revoke during his presidency but was blocked by the courts. She rents a two-bedroom apartment on the open market, which she shares with a friend.
Banal Oreus works full-time at a local manufacturing company and volunteers with the St. Vincent De Paul Society, where he helps recent arrivals prepare immigration documents and access benefits and work opportunities.
Why Springfield?
“I had friends here… My brother lived here, so I moved here to join him,” Oreus said, speaking amid the busy atmosphere of a legal clinic for new immigrants.
Springfield mayor Rob Rue talks with city manager Bryan Heck in Springfield, Ohio, U.S., August 13, 2024. REUTERS/Howard Schneider.
However, there are signs of improvement. A Ryan Homes subdivision on the outskirts of town, the first new home construction in years, is nearly fully built and occupied. Another large development of higher-priced homes is underway, and a block of city-center townhomes has sold out.
At a time when commercial real estate is on shaky footing after the pandemic, one of several vacant downtown buildings is being converted into condominiums. And a boarded-up black structure towering over City Hall – briefly home to a failed attempt to revive the defunct E.F. Hutton investment firm brand, has attracted investor interest. A high-tech research hub is being considered as a potential anchor, one of several positive spillover local development officials say they have seen from the Intel chip plant being built near Columbus.
For their part, city officials, local educators and the business community say that once the short-term disruptions are overcome, a growing population will add to a nascent revival.
“We needed a workforce,” to fill jobs in a resurgent local manufacturing sector and staff a growing number of warehouse and distribution centers, said Amy Donahoe, director of workforce development with the Greater Springfield Partnership. “They are coming in and they are working hard and they want to make money.”
A “Public nuisance” notice on a vacant office building is pictured in downtown Springfield, Ohio, U.S., August 13, 2024. REUTERS/Howard Schneider.
