By By Okon Ekpenyong
Detroit’s economic comeback has been years in the making, after decades of population loss, business closures, and industrial decline. Once one of the nation’s most prosperous manufacturing centers, the region has seen renewed investment from major players including Ford at Michigan Central, General Motors at Hudson’s Detroit, and JPMorganChase, which says its Detroit investments have surpassed $2 billion since 2014.
That changing economic landscape is part of the backdrop for the September 22 Opportunity Workforce Summit, which brings together employers, workforce organizations, and immigrant and refugee job seekers across the Detroit-area region of Southeast Michigan. The event focuses on workforce shortages, credential barriers, and how internationally trained workers can better connect with careers that match their skills.
According to the 2024 U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, Detroit had about 42,300 foreign-born residents out of roughly 638,500 residents. In nearby Dearborn, more than 32,500 of the city’s approximately 107,400 residents were foreign-born — about 30% of the population. Ahead of the Summit, Autumn Foster, Semirc Workforce Development Coordinator shared with New Americans Magazine about the region’s workforce needs, immigrant and refugee talent, and the barriers internationally trained professionals continue to face.
What workforce needs in Southeast Michigan could immigrant and refugee job seekers help employers address?
Immigrant and refugee job seekers possess valuable skills to contribute to Southeast Michigan’s employers. They fill critical positions in home health care, hospitality, manufacturing, construction, and more. In fact, immigrant labor tends to be complementary to the skill sets of U.S.-born workers, helping to fulfill talent gaps among high-skilled STEM positions, as well as among positions requiring physical labor and everything in between.
In 2024, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation identified software developers and electrical engineers as the two most important professions to assist Michigan’s automotive industry. Over 70 percent of the graduate students in America in these two fields are international students, and they represent the future talent supply in these critical fields.
At the same time, Southeast Michigan, like much of America, is suffering from a housing shortage. Approximately half of the labor in critical fields like roofers, drywall installers, and carpenters are immigrants and refugees. All of Southeast Michigan’s net population growth over the last decade has been from the addition of more immigrants and refugees to our region.
What are the biggest barriers preventing foreign-trained or internationally educated professionals from finding jobs that match their education, credentials, and previous work experience?
Immigrants, refugees, and foreign-trained and educated professionals face several barriers to working in careers that leverage their training, education, and skills.
Sometimes the barrier exists in the process of obtaining their professional licenses. In fact, a bipartisan bill to streamline Michigan’s licensing processes for foreign-trained and educated medical professionals is being considered this legislative session. Sometimes the licensing laws do not present a difficult barrier, but immigrant professionals and/or the job placement professionals who assist them are unaware of where to find the necessary information to assist them in obtaining their licenses.
A final barrier relates to the job search. Immigrant and refugee professionals might be unfamiliar with U.S. customs in terms of resume writing, interviewing, etc. For all of these reasons, the Michigan Global Talent Initiative and the Global Epicenter for Mobility have invested in identifying specific job coaches to support immigrant and refugee professionals in their job search and licensing and credentialing efforts. This funding has enabled SEMCA, Oakland Michigan Works! and Macomb/St. Clair Michigan Works! to offer Skilled Immigrant Integration Program (SIIP) support to immigrant and refugee professionals.
How significant is the problem of immigrants arriving with degrees or professional experience but having to accept jobs far below their qualifications?
The problem is real. How often have you had an Uber driver who was trained, educated, or experienced in a profession in their home country, but who is having trouble connecting with a professional career in the U.S.?
The proverbial engineer driving an Uber or working in a restaurant is ubiquitous. Nationally, research from the Migration Policy Institute and World Education Services has documented that foreign-trained and educated immigrant professionals are 1.5 times as likely to be underemployed or unemployed as U.S.-born professionals.
In Michigan, the numbers are closer to even, but this remains a problem. In fact, helping immigrant and refugee professionals was identified as the top economic inclusion priority in the 2022 Kent County Welcome Plan.
What can Michigan employers do differently to identify, hire and retain qualified immigrant and refugee workers?
Employers can contact the Southeast Michigan Immigrant and Refugee Collaborative (SEMIRC), as well as the collaborative’s members who provide workforce development and placement programs, including Samaritas, USCRI, and Jewish Family Services Washtenaw, which serve the region’s refugee communities.
Other organizations include the International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit, Centro Multicultural La Familia, SER Metro, ACCESS, America’s Community Council, Chaldean Community Foundation, and others that serve immigrant workers. Finally, employers can contact the region’s three Skilled Immigrant Integration Program (SIIP) providers if the positions require a degree and/or professional credential.
Even more importantly, employers should work to utilize inclusive hiring and retention practices. Are HR and talent acquisition staff screening out qualified immigrant and refugee workers because they don’t know the names of the universities in their home countries? Are they inadvertently discriminating against applicants who may have an accent or a difficult name to pronounce?
Is there an employer turning away top university international student talent because they may need visa sponsorship after the optional practical training portion of their student visa expires?
Beyond ensuring that an employer is open to immigrant and refugee talent, employers ought to work to foster welcoming work environments. While some of building an inclusive workplace centers on ensuring that immigrant workers have what they need to collaborate with their teammates, it also involves working with their U.S.-born team to ensure that they are prepared to collaborate with and respect their immigrant colleagues.
What role can credential recognition, workforce training, English-language support and professional networking play in helping internationally trained workers move into careers that better match their skills?
Credential recognition and contextualized English learning that builds language skills around work-related topics are often part of any inclusive talent initiative.
The Michigan Global Talent Initiative helped Skilled Immigrant Integration Program providers — SEMCA, Oakland Michigan Works! and Macomb/St. Clair Michigan Works! — assist their clients in getting their foreign degrees and credentials recognized. MGTI also invested in providing over 1,000 contextualized ESL licenses to Michigan employers and workforce development agencies to help immigrant and refugee workers build their work-based English skills.
What do you hope employers and immigrant or refugee job seekers take away from the Opportunity Workforce Summit?
What I hope people take away from the Summit is that there is so much opportunity already in the room. The talent is there. The experience is there. Employers are looking for good people. Sometimes what’s missing is the connection between the two.
For immigrant and refugee job seekers, I want them to leave knowing that the skills, education, and experience they bring have value here. Navigating a new workforce system can be difficult, especially when you’re also facing barriers like language, transportation, credential recognition, childcare, or simply not knowing where to start.
I hope they leave with real connections, useful resources, and a clearer path forward.
For employers, I hope the Summit broadens the conversation beyond recruitment. Hiring is one piece of it. We also have to think about what helps people stay, grow, and feel like they belong. That may mean looking differently at how we recruit and evaluate talent, while also recognizing the barriers outside of work that can affect someone’s ability to stay employed.
We can talk about workforce shortages and talent pipelines all day, but at the center of this work are people. If an employer connects with someone they may not have reached through their usual hiring process, or a job seeker leaves with a connection that opens a new door, we’ve moved something forward.
That’s what this Summit means to me. We’re not creating the talent or ambition. It’s already there. We’re helping make the connections that allow people and employers to see what’s possible.
The Opportunity Workforce Summit is part of that evolving workforce picture, connecting employers, job seekers, and organizations across the region. As new jobs, businesses, and residents continue to reshape metropolitan Detroit, the people choosing to work, build careers, start businesses, and make their lives there will help shape what comes next.
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