Hartford Business Journal

12 Hartford Business Journal • July 22, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Sean Teehan steehan@hartfordbusiness.com I n the early days of Reynolds Weld- ing & Fabrication, Jerado Reyn- olds couldn't afford to hire any employees to help him at job sites. "At one time I had to have my wife help me finish a job," Reynolds said of his life and business partner, Joyce, who co-owns the company with him. "Of course, if anything [bad] hap- pened I'd blame her," he chuckled. That was about 14 years ago, when the two, who had emigrated from Jamaica, were still trying to learn a new regulatory system of permits and paperwork. But today, Reynolds Weld- ing & Fabrication — which produces and installs metals — has grown to 18 employees, and recently bought a Windsor office to replace the small Hartford workspace they rented when they were starting out. Despite legal immigration slowing in the United States — including a 12 percent decline between fiscal 2017 and 2018 — amid the Trump adminis- tration's hardline stance on the issue, economists, public officials and others in Connecticut say entrepreneurial for- eigners like the Reynolds are and will become an increasingly important seg- ment of the state's economy, which has been haunted by a population aging out of the workforce, or moving out of state during their prime working years. As of 2017, there were 37,000 for- eign-born business owners statewide — 1,000 more than 2014 — including 9,500 in Greater Hartford, according to New American Economy (NAE), a nonpartisan research and immigra- tion advocacy group. Some 95,000 people across the state are currently employed by immigrant- owned firms, said Andrew Lim, NAE's research director. About 10 percent of Hartford residents work for a business owned by foreign-born individuals, said Don Chapman, Hartford's direc- tor of small business and community development. All this points to an obvious solution to a slow-moving state economy, said Pete Gioia, chief economist for PGEcon. com LLC and a consultant for the Con- necticut Business & Industry Associa- tion. Even so, Gioia said federal and state stakeholders seem to be all but ignoring the potential role immigrant business owners can have in helping with the state's economic revival. "This is an economic-development priority for Connecticut that nobody's paying serious attention to, and you don't have to give people incentives, you don't have to pay out government monies or tax breaks," Gioia said. "Ev- erybody focuses on illegal immigrants, and they don't focus on people who are legal, who can contribute to our society, and that's where immigration reform needs to start." Connecticut immigrant-owned busi- nesses do have an outsized impact on the economy, recording $15.6 billion in sales in 2017, NAE data show. And immigrants in Greater Hartford are 4.7 percent more likely than their native- born counterparts to go into business for themselves, NAE found. That's why Chapman says Hartford is looking to attract and encourage more foreign-born entrepreneurs to set up shop in the city. Efforts include partner- ing with local nonprofits that provide services for immigrant entrepreneurs like HEDCO and the Spanish American Merchants Association, Chapman said. The city also created a small business micro-loan program that distributes business loans of up to $7,500. The program, now citywide, started two years ago in Hartford's Parkville section, a neighborhood with an active foreign-born entrepreneurship scene. "I think it's a vital part of our eco- nomic-development strategy to make sure that these immigrant communi- ties grow, because they're dynamic and they're risk-takers," Chapman said. As developers have been renovat- ing buildings in Hartford's downtown — many of which are filling up with residents after being converted from office space to apartments — smaller, immigrant-owned businesses have been rejuvenating surrounding neigh- borhoods, Chapman said. A prime example is in Parkville, an area dotted with clothing and furni- ture stores and restaurants all owned and run by immigrants. Many of those businesses are ten- ants of Carlos Mouta, a landlord who came of age in Parkville after moving there with his family from Mozam- bique at age 14. Today, he owns about 17 mixed-use properties in Hartford. "They're from El Salvador, they're from Vietnam, they're from all over the place," Mouta said. "We have lots of diversity in Parkville, and it's becom- ing a cool neighborhood." The variety of goods and services coming to the neighborhood from all corners of the world via immi- grant entrepreneurs is tracking with Mouta's ultimate goal of transforming Parkville into Connecticut's version of Brooklyn, N.Y. he said, referring to the borough's plethora of global food, en- tertainment and cultural attractions. Mouta is currently developing a food market in Hartford's Parkville neigh- borhood that will feature international tenants. Bilonda Diyoka-Saleh, who owns Karibu Clothing and Gift Store on Parkville's Park Street, runs her business while working as a medical technologist for the UConn John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington. She said data showing immigrants are more likely to start businesses than native-born Americans is likely reflective of the culture in their countries of origin. She moved here from the Democratic Republic of Congo. "Where I'm from, to do well, people usually do business on the side, even if they have some other job," Diyoka- Foreign-Born Influence Some say immigrant entrepreneurs hold key to CT's economic revival Bilonda Diyoka-Seleh, who emigrated to the U.S. from the Democratic Republic of Congo, has owned Karibu Clothing and Gift Store in Hartford's Parkville section for 15 years. HBJ PHOTO | SEAN TEEHAN BY THE NUMBERS Immigrants' CT influence 525,813 The number of immigrant residents in Connecticut. 14.7% Immigrant share of population in Connecticut. 37,285 The number of immigrant entrepreneurs in Connecticut. 95,177 The number of people employed by immigrant-owned firms in Connecticut.

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