In the city of Tukwila, since early 2023, you can regularly hear the lyrical sounds of different languages being spoken and children playing in the Riverton Park United Methodist Church. It is crowded, with hundreds of newly arrived migrants sleeping inside the church, some people sleeping unsheltered outside, and still more who journey to the church and are turned away.
The church and the city of Tukwila represent a tiny fraction of the many cities and communities in Washington state welcoming people seeking asylum in pursuit of a safe home. Washington is one among the top ten states in the United States assisting thousands of people fleeing violence.
Despite some concerns about the scale of people seeking refuge and asylum in Washington, we know from a long history of welcoming refugees to our state that newly arrived people benefit our collective society and economy. In addition to their contributions, helping people flee from violence is simply the right thing to do. Therefore, lawmakers must ensure we have greater state and municipal funding, alongside comprehensive and centralized systems to adequately support their transition to Washington.
The new migrants who come to the U.S. seeking safety and opportunity
Everyone deserves a safe place to call home and to grow. The terms “immigrant” and “migrant” encapsulate the experience of all who cross borders to create a new home. In Riverton, people who arrive at the church are refugees and asylum seekers, people who flee violence, persecution, or environmental disasters. Refugees apply for their status and are legally admitted to the United States before they set foot in the U.S., whereas asylum seekers arrive first in the U.S. before applying for asylum. The term “newly arrived migrants” describes these refugees and asylum seekers who have come to Washington.
According to the Newly Arrived Migrants Support Coalition, one of the many groups that convened in October 2023 and has organized advocacy efforts for state funding and direct services for the migrants in Tukwila, the Riverton church, has served approximately 1,200 people. In federal fiscal year 2023, Washington state received over 14,000 refugee applications – that’s more than nine times the amount of refugees that came to Washington in 2023. Many of the newly arrived migrants are from the Middle East and Latin America, of which a majority arrive from Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Syria. A large percentage of others are from Cuba, Venezuela, and Haiti. In addition to King County, the county where the City of Tukwila is located, the highest number of newly arrived refugees and asylum seekers are traveling to Spokane, Snohomish, and Clark counties to find shelter and apply for immigration status.
While Riverton is an excellent example of how local communities are coming together to provide direct services to care for newly arrived migrants, newly arrived migrants need more. In early 2024, advocates, including members of the Newly Arrived Migrants coalition, demanded and won greater funding and organized systems from the state and cities of Tukwila and Seattle in 2024 to support refugees and asylum seekers.
Although migrants are grateful for these resources, Vanessa Reyes, Policy Manager with the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, who has been convening the coalition, shared that there is still a significant difference in migrants need and the resources available. The coalition wants to amplify the asks of migrants directly. Migrants have shared their need for housing that has access to communal spaces, play areas for children, and kitchens. Additionally, but no less important, the coalition asks that migrants receive access to culturally relevant food, legal representation and case management support, job permits and employment support, and access to transportation. Everyone in Washington deserves these services to live with dignity, and newly arrived migrants are no exception.
Migrants help power Washington’s economy and communities
Once newly arrived migrants settle into their new homes, data demonstrates that, beyond bringing new connections, cultural offerings, and cuisines to their communities, they are also powerful economic stabilizers. Refugees and asylum seekers are essential workers, entrepreneurs, and vital economic drivers who fuel our state and local economies. In the first few years of their arrival, migrants find work in agriculture, food service, construction, and cleaning. Despite the notion that migrants are taking U.S.-born jobs, we see that migrants fill labor gaps in essential, but physically laborious, positions that U.S.- born workers are not pursuing.
Moreover, migrants also bring their ideas and visions. Many migrants are incredibly entrepreneurial and start companies that generate more jobs than they occupy. While there are certainly smaller migrant-owned businesses, newly arrived migrants have also formed huge companies like WhatsApp, that introduce new jobs into the economy, encourage cash flow, and become an integral part of our culture.
Newly arrived migrants also possess incredible spending power and provide necessary tax contributions for our shared social programs. Data from the Immigration Research Initiative paints a closer picture of recently arrived migrants’ incomes and tax contributions to the local economy. The data show that migrants receive over $40 million in wages per 1,000 workers, which creates key spending power to keep our economy moving. Migrants also contribute $6 million annually in state and local taxes per 1,000 workers.
Over time, the $374.5 million in state and local taxes refugees contribute in Washington could fund the creation of an unemployment insurance program for undocumented workers who lose their employment due to no fault of their own, as well as could fund a Medicaid-like program for undocumented communities – Both critical programs have yet to be fully funded in the state Legislature due to lack of revenue. Newly arrived migrants pour so much of themselves and their labor into our society; it is well past time that we provide greater investment in refugees and asylum seekers’ integration and well-being.
Investing in refugees and asylum seekers is investing in our future
Our municipal and state governments have a clear role and opportunity to build on what we’ve done and need to do now: welcome our new neighbors and provide access to resources and opportunities to help them become a part of our community. Our elected officials must proudly embrace that Washington is recognized as a home of safety and opportunity for migrants. Elected officials can demonstrate our state and cities’ commitment to opportunity and dignity for all people in Washington by choosing to work with advocates to identify and allocate long term, consistent funding in the budgets of all levels of government budgets. Then, we can better meet newly arrived people’s basic needs, provide ample opportunities, and warmly welcome our new neighbors.
Thank you to Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network for their contributions to this blog post.
