Denver’s Mayor Mike Johnston (D) is applauding a new initiative designed to aid migrants in transitioning from the city’s shelters into employment through a program offering job training, legal assistance, and English language education.
“Our objective was to convert what was perceived as a crisis into an opportunity,” Mayor Mike Johnston shared with the media. “We have individuals arriving in the city who are eager to work, possessing skills, talents, and discipline. Simultaneously, we have city employers who are in dire need of employees and are keen to hire them. Our goal was to connect these job seekers with the necessary training and skills for the jobs that are most in demand. This led us to create this unique asylum-seeker program, which is the first of its kind in the nation.”
Johnston further explained that the program will roll out over a six-month period, during which migrants will receive English classes, financial literacy training, job training, and legal assistance for their asylum claims.
“When the work authorization arrives,” Johnston said regarding the migrants, “they will already have the skills, training, authorization, and certification to start a job immediately and significantly benefit a Denver employer.”
However, this program may result in more migrants securing jobs before citizens. According to CIS.org, all the employment growth from 2019 through 2023 was attributed to foreign-born applicants.
These rates are notably lower than the 80.6 percent observed in 2006 and 82.6 percent in 2000. During the 1960s, nearly 90 percent of this demographic of men were employed.
In contrast, the participation rate of immigrant men without a bachelor’s degree in the labor force stands at 85.5 percent, which is higher than that of citizens.
The report states, “Although the numbers have steadily recovered from the pandemic lows of 2020, there were still 183,000 fewer U.S.-born Americans employed in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, pre-COVID. Conversely, the number of employed immigrants (both legal and illegal) has increased by 2.9 million since 2019.”
