Denver’s experiment in providing a soft landing for newly arrived migrants and asylum-seekers isn’t cheap – but doing nothing might cost more
By Anita Alves Pena, Colorado State University,
2024-09-17
The burden of supporting asylum-seekers with food and housing often falls to cities, creating severe budget crunches . But Denver is piloting a new approach designed to integrate immigrants into the workforce faster.
The Denver Asylum Seekers Program offers six months of rent-free housing along with legal assistance, food aid and workforce training. The program started on April 10, 2024, with spots for up to 1,000 participants .
Only asylum-seekers who were already living in Denver when the program launched are eligible – a provision designed to control costs and discourage hopeful participants from coming to Denver. This is an important detail in a city that, like others , has groaned under the financial strain of an influx of migrants since December 2022.
The program allowed Denver to trim $15 million per quarter from its previously projected budget, but the city will still planned to spend $90 million in migrant services in 2024, including the costs of the Denver Asylum Seekers Program.
Denver’s homeless population grew 32% in 2023 to about 10,000 people even when migrants are not included in the totals. More people on the streets leads to higher care costs in emergency rooms and for policing .
If the program means that some of costs associated with “doing nothing” are avoided, then those avoided costs could go to other income support and preventive programs. This idea was illustrated in 2023 when Denver faced extra expenditures on migrant services and around $2 million were paid from Department of Human Services accounts , shortchanging other programs.
The Denver program is designed to put that waiting period to good use via workforce training , which increases the odds that migrants will quickly secure employment as soon as they’re allowed to work.
Workforce training will benefit not only the migrants themselves, but also their dependent family members and local economies. Recently published statistics show that 43% of refugees to Colorado were under 18 , so getting migrant parents to work will minimize costs to programs that support children like public welfare services.
An economics professor at Montana State University found that a 100-dollar increase in monthly assistance received by refugees through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program was associated with 5% to 8% higher wages for these migrants once they started working . The research concluded that refugee assistance was cost-effective to bridge refugees into well-matched jobs. Those jobs in turn contribute to the long-run economy that benefits everyone.
Refugee integration also has been shown valuable for Colorado specifically. Professors with the Colorado School of Public Health and the University of Colorado Anschutz documented links between economic sufficiency and community integration of 467 Colorado refugees over three years . They measured integration based on understanding American culture, knowing legal rights, and other aspects of social and economic stability.
Investment returns of migrant employment
A common counterargument to investments in new migrants is the possibility of labor-market displacement of native-born workers. However, in a paper circulated by the U.S. Department of State , refugee admissions were shown to have not affected wages or employment for natives over a 30-year study period.
If this first-of-its-kind program achieves this same return on investment, it can be expanded or replicated in other cities to decrease migrant expenditure and promote local economic sustainability.
This story was updated on Sept. 19, 2024 to reflect the city’s planned changes to the program.
Anita Alves Pena does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Comments / 293
Add a Comment
Venting just
28d ago
vote Red and make America and Deportation Great again in November 🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.