Migrants Are Making Springfield Great Again

By Bob Lewis, MVIC Leadership Team

September 28, 2024

Back in 2008, Richard Longworth, longtime columnist with the Chicago Tribune, wrote Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism, a heavily researched analysis of the plight and hoped-for recovery from decline or disappearance of small cities and towns across the Midwest. Factories, companies, and small businesses were closing down and employment opportunities diminishing. Service institutions (hospitals, schools, banks) couldn’t afford to stay open. With the outmigration of high school and college graduates for better opportunities and the decline and aging of the population, the future looked bleak. This was a regionwide phenomenon brought on in large measure by the changing dynamics of international trade and a global economy.  As Longworth writes, the Midwest was “caught in the middle.”

Springfield, Ohio was no different than other small cities and towns spread out across the Midwest.  Its peak population in the 1960s was over 82,000.  It declined to under 60,000 by 2020, partly from local out-migration, most by diminishing job opportunities.  Over 22,000 manufacturing and blue-collar jobs were lost during the 1990s. Springfield was seen as losing sustainability and opportunity.

Each community is a story in itself of its efforts to understand and respond to actual and impending global forces contributing to its loss of institutional strength and civic pride. Facing these challenging circumstances, by going along, denying or making intentional changes for survival, each community struggled to hold on. There were no easy answers.  Sadly, many communities followed a downward spiral of social and economic defeat.  Many were unwilling to adapt their behavior to meet the growing challenges.  Unfortunately, you can see these depressed places, what’s left of them, all over the Midwest.

Holding on to “going back to the good old days” - treasured ways of community living - was an embrace that was hard to let go of and led to abandoning the main street stores for the new mall on the edge of town.  Then it was adjusting to the mall having to close and learning how to order “whatever” online. Commuting longer distances to shop or work, traveling miles to get to the doctor or to the hospital, busing children long distances to school—became uneasy realities to face, question, and fear.

Longworth writes eloquently about how in the last decade the arrival of migrants in some of these communities helped many of them survive, and in some cases, thrive.  It was a surprise to learn how extensive this growing pattern of in-migration was helping rescue both communities and migrants from dire circumstances. Across the Midwest, new jobs are being created and offered to migrants, who welcome the opportunities to work, settle down, raise families, and share their well-being with others.  Communities are being rescued by the new and renewed economic opportunities provided by companies that relocate or emerge, hire migrants, provide for tax growth and community enhancement, and foster needed health, education, and cultural enrichment.

No one has said that change is easy. Often it is not intentional, but by happenstance.  Migrants go where relatives and friends have already gone, where there is work, affordable housing and safety.  Haitian migrants have been settling in Springfield for at least a decade and now number more than 12,000.  But since at least 2014, leaders in Springfield have acknowledged that inviting migrants to come to Springfield would help the community grow both economically and culturally.  Making this strategic commitment required courage and trust in and by the community itself. 

Nevertheless, communities get caught off guard confronted with the uncertainties and complexities that arise quickly and unexpectedly when different cultures try to live together. Bringing two or more cultures together, with different histories, different life styles, different languages takes time, patience, courage, thoughtful and careful relationship building, deliberation and respect to discover shared values and aspirations. Implementing this kind of commitment to change requires careful planning, institutional collaboration, support from community organizations (schools, colleges, health care, social services, public safety, churches), and support from both state and federal sources. Springfield is trying to foster this kind of shared understanding and investment for the common good of all. This opportunity is still in the early stages in Springfield and will need everyone’s continuing support.