wbjournal.com | November 12, 2018 | Worcester Business Journal 3
Editor, Brad Kane,
bkane@wbjournal.com
News Editor, Grant Welker,
gwelker@wbjournal.com (Real estate,
higher education, health care)
Staff Writers
Zachary Comeau,
zcomeau@wbjournal.com
(Manufacturing)
Contributors
Susan Shalhoub
Livia Gershon
Research Director,
Stephanie Meagher,
smeagher@nebusinessmedia.com
Research Assistant, Heide Martin,
hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com
Production Director, Kira Beaudoin,
kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com
Art Director, Mitchell Hayes,
mhayes@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Matt Majikas,
mmajikas@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Christine Juetten,
cjuetten@wbjournal.com
Senior Special Accounts Manager
Mary Lynn Bosiak,
mlbosiak@wbjournal.com
Marketing & Events Manager
Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com
Events & Marketing Intern
Megan Irish, events@wbjournal.com
Distribution and Database Coordinator
A Guide to STUFF, a publication
of New England Business Media
Patty Harris,
pharris@nebusinessmedia.com
COO, Mary Rogers,
mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Manager, Valerie Clark,
vclark@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers,
rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Collections Manager, Raki Zwiebel,
rzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
Human Resources, Jill Coran,
jcoran@nebusinessmedia.com
Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton
pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com
Associate Publisher, Mark Murray
mmurray@wbjournal.com
President, Joseph Zwiebel
jzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is
published bi-weekly, 24x per year, including 4 special
issues in May, September, October, and December by New
England Business Media. 172 Shrewsbury St., Worcester,
MA 01604. Periodicals postage paid at Worcester, MA.
Copyright 2018. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Please
send address changes to: Worcester Business Journal,
PO Box 330, Congers, NY 10920-9894.
Subscriptions: Annual subscriptions are available for
$54.95. For more information, please email wbjournal@
cambeywest.com or contact our circulation department at
845-267-3008. Fax: 845.267.3478
Advertising: For advertising information, please call Mark
Murray at 508-755-8004 ext. 227. Fax: 508-755-8860.
Worcester Business Journal accepts no responsibility for
unsolicited manuscripts or materials and in general does
not return them to the sender.
Worcester Business Journal
172 Shrewsbury Street, Worcester, MA 01604
508-755-8004 tel.
• 508-755-8860 fax
www.wbjournal.com
A division of:
Worcester Business Journal
WBJ
I
n 2015, WBJ published a recurring
feature call Incorporations, which is
a listing of all the entrepreneurs who
file papers with the Massachusetts
Secretary of the Commonwealth to
create a new business in our region (Incor-
porations is still available via subscription).
During my first few weeks as editor back
then, Publisher Peter Stanton pointed out
it seemed two out of every three entrepre-
neurs in Incorporations appeared to have
first and last names indicating there was a
good chance they were born in a foreign
country. We theorized the majority of new
businesses were being founded immigrants
or first-generation Americans.
Fast forward a year to WBJ's 2016 40
Under Forty awards. ree of the first four
winners we featured were born outside the
United States: Albania, Laos and Ireland.
We actually had two winners native to
Albania that year, and the following
two years had honorees from places like
Ghana, Brazil, Hungary, England, Kenya
and Nicaragua. Clearly, foreign-born
entrepreneurs and young professionals
are making their mark on the Central
Massachusetts economy.
But we wanted to know how big that im-
pact was. Worcester human services non-
profit Seven Hills Foundation produced
a study in 2015 showing foreign-born
residents in Worcester founded businesses
more frequently and had higher incomes
than native residents. To expand on those
findings, WBJ this year partnered with
our friends over at the Worcester Regional
Research Bureau to learn more about the
historic and modern impacts immigrants
had in our city.
anks to WRRB's Tim McGourthy,
Tom Quinn and their army of interns, we
got data to answer those questions. WBJ
News Editor Grant Welker then took that
research to out in the community to gather
immigrants' stories. Turns out, people who
leave their native countries for a foreign
land are intelligent risk-takers, who want to
get the most out of the American dream.
One aspect of the immigration conver-
sation Welker does not touch on is legal vs.
illegal immigration. e Seven Hills report
found about 14 percent of immigrants in
Worcester came to the country illegally.
Obviously, given today's political climate,
this is a hot button issue. An online poll
I N T H I S I S S U E
W
The importance of immigrants
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CITY OF IMMIGRANTS
4 Worcester: City of Immigrants
Foreign-born residents have a
disproportionately large impact on the
Worcester economy.
7 Get to know Worcester's
immigrants
WBJ's editorial board encourages readers
to understand the business opportunities
available in partnering with the foreign-born
community.
8 Coming to Worcester
The city's immigrant population has shifted
in the last decade, with foreign-born
residents still leaving their mark.
10 Helping immigrant businesses
Foreign-born entrepreneurs aren't as
familiar with the resources available to help
them succeed.
11 Immigrant journeys
UMass Medical School professors discuss
their roads to success in America.
12 The Immigrant Entrepreneur
in Worcester
Read the entire Worcester Regional
Research Bureau Report
WBJ put up last week received multiple
comments decrying illegal immigration,
even though the poll wasn't about illegal
immigration. But for Welker's stories, this
debate is beside the point. We want to
show the impact of the immigrant com-
munity in Worcester, regardless of how
they got here.
- Brad Kane, editor
To understand more about the role immigrants play in
the Worcester economy, click here to download the entire
59-page report from 2015 commissioned by the
Seven Hills Foundation.
http://www.sevenhills.org/whats-happening/the-foreign-
born-population-of-worcester
