Worcester Business Journal

4 Worcester Business Journal | November 12, 2018 | wbjournal.com Foreign-born residents have a disproportion- ately large impact on the Worcester economy BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor City of Immigrants City of Immigrants Worcester Regional Research Bureau A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN Emmanuel Larbi's restaurant Accra Girls is named after his mother and aunt (along with the Ghanaian capital) and features dishes like kelewele (fried plantains) and suya (meat skewers). E mmanuel Larbi was 7 years old when his family im- migrated from Ghana to Worcester in 2002, leaving behind a country with too few opportunities for families to live comfortable lives. Sixteen years later, Larbi works as a cancer researcher at Tus Medical Cen- ter in Boston and co-owns the restau- rant Accra Girls on Graon Street in Worcester with his mother, Sarah Larbi. e restaurant is only a year old – spun off from a catering business Sarah Larbi and her sister founded in 2003 – but Emmanuel is already thinking big, hop- ing to one day make the brand as iconic as Ford or General Electric. "If it doesn't seem impossible, I think you're not dreaming big enough," Larbi said one crisp day in October, right before the start of his night shi at Accra Girls but still dressed in the suit and tie he wears for his research job. Larbi and his mother are among the nearly 40,000 Worcester foreign-born residents who have made a dispropor- tionately large impact on the economy of the city, whose immigrant population has been higher than the state and national averages since its incorporation in 1870. "A trip through many of the city's neighborhood retail districts or the halls of its larger businesses will illustrate the influence of foreign-born leaders and employees," said Timothy McGourthy, the executive director of the Worcester Regional Research Bureau. "Add the spending power of these individuals and households, and an important under- pinning of the economy is rooted in the presence of the foreign-born." To better understand the city's immi- grant community, Worcester Business Journal partnered with the Worcester Regional Research Bureau at the start of 2018 to study the historic and current impact of foreign-born residents on the economy. e results show immigrants in the city are more likely than native citizens to be entrepreneurs and have bachelor's degrees, and foreign-born business owners comprise more than two-thirds of the city's locally owned restaurants and landscaping companies. "Moving here was one of the biggest challenges of my life," said Oriola Koci, who moved to Worcester from Albania in 1996 when she was 19 years old and now co-owns two Worcester restaurants with her husband Enton Mehillaj, also a native of Albania. "If you come here, you know nothing's given to you. You have to have the work ethic in order to survive." Entrepreneurial spirit Foreign-born residents make up 22 percent of Worcester's population yet comprise 36 percent of business owners, "Moving here was one of the biggest challenges of my life." Oriola Koci, co-owner of two Worcester restaurants PHOTO/EDD COTE

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