Editorial: Still chasing the American Dream

Minnesotans have been struggling with the issue of immigration lately -- feeling one day that their state is a place of welcome and opportunity, thinking the next that today's immigrants and refugees don't bring the same skills and values that previous generations brought.

So it was reassuring to see a new census report this week which shows that the state's immigrant and refugee communities are getting ahead in the economy, making gains in education and generally taking their place in a long American tradition of building a better life.

Specifically, the census data show that Hmong refugees, who are heavily concentrated in Minnesota, have seen a sharp increase in income and a sharp drop in poverty since 1990. Refugees of African origin are moving rapidly into skills training and higher education. Coupled with a Census report last month which showed important income gains for Hispanic-Americans, it suggests that immigrants and refugees still come to the United States for brighter prospects -- and find them.

Minnesota should celebrate that progress because, with its huge baby boom cohort nearing retirement, it will very shortly need a fresh supply of workers and taxpayers. By one estimate, migration, domestic and international, will represent three-fourths of the growth in Minnesota's workforce in the next decade.

The Census data do not address the other side of the immigration problem: a broken federal system that cannot accommodate the millions of people who want to come to the United States or stop those who come without documents. But they do suggest that those immigrants are filling a legitimate economic need and that immigration reform, when it comes, must address that reality. "What makes the most sense is to provide support and a safety net for people who are striving to achieve the American Dream," says Katherine Fennelly of the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the Legislature took an important step in that direction last winter with a set of tax credits to help immigrant families earn U.S. citizenship. The state still needs to adopt the Dream Act, which would extend in-state tuition to children in immigrant families when they have graduated from Minnesota high schools. A third idea, from Fennelly, would be to establish a state task force to help integrate new residents into the mainstream.

The face and speed of immigration change from one decade to the next, but its underlying motives and value to the American economy do not.