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March 22, 2004EMPLOYMENTWhen state's educated young adults move out, immigrants move inBY THE ASSOCIATED PRESSDr. Rohit Sud says he felt a bit apprehensive about moving to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where natives of India are a rarity. Two years later, the internal medicine specialist at Marquette General Hospital says he and his wife - who is expecting their first child - have adjusted nicely and plan to stick around. "People have been very receptive, very welcoming," said Sud, 31. "The quality of life is very relaxed. I feel very fulfilled here." Sud and others like him represent a little-noticed success story for Michigan, says Kurt Metzger, research director of the Center for Urban Studies at Wayne State University. While state leaders struggle to stem the exodus of homegrown young adults to the Sun Belt, the losses are being partially offset by recently arrived immigrants - many with advanced degrees and skills sought by high-tech companies, Metzger says. "We need to celebrate that and ... make sure that Michigan remains an attractive place for immigrants - especially those young, well-educated people," he said. Paul Krepps, spokesman for the Michigan Economic Development Corp., said he knew of no program in state government designed to lure immigrants. The MEDC does recruit students from other states to attend college in Michigan, hoping they will settle here afterward, he said. The U.S. Census Bureau recently estimated that Michigan lost 41,529 people ages 15 to 44 over the past three years. That continued a trend reflected in the 2000 census, which found the state's population in that age group fell by 58,573 during the 1990s. Those numbers don't tell the whole story, Metzger said. His research shows the drop-off was particularly acute among well-educated young adults. From 1995 to 2000, the state lost 10,697 residents with bachelor's degrees and an additional 7,687 with graduate degrees in the crucial 25-to-39 age group. Yet during the same period, Michigan gained 17,017 immigrants with bachelor's degrees and 13,740 with graduate degrees in that same age category. Some of them probably were in the state to attend college, so it's important to keep them here afterward, Metzger said. "They are the future work force of this state," he said. Gov. Jennifer Granholm's "cool cities" initiative is aimed at boosting the quality of life in metro areas in hopes of making them more attractive to young people and employers. Immigrants also care about a healthy environment and good restaurants and recreation. Sud, who did his residency in New York City before going to Marquette, is an avid mountain biker and downhill skier and is learning to cross-country ski. But immigrants tend to put less emphasis on those matters than on simply finding a good job, said Seema Chaturvedi, managing director of Accelerator Group LLC, a consulting firm in Troy. "It's very economic-driven," said Chaturvedi, 35, also a native of India. She has lived in Michigan for a decade after spending a couple of years in Boston. "This whole thing of choosing the best quality of life comes later in life when your necessities are met." For Sud, the attraction was Marquette General's invitation to establish a "hospitalist" program. Hospitalists are primary care physicians who treat only people in hospitals instead of seeing patients in their offices and developing long-term relationships with them. It's a fast-growing trend in patient care, one that supporters say reduces health care costs and saves doctors' time. But critics say patients are better off having the same physician supervise their care in the office and the hospital. Marquette General's willingness to try the program is the kind of open-mindedness that would make Michigan attractive to young workers - both native and immigrants - if there were more of it, Sud said. "The new order giving way to the old seems to be much harder in the Midwest than the East Coast," he said. Midwesterners "are more set in their ideas ... very hesitant to accept change, which I think the younger generation tries to bring." Immigration was a key component of Michigan's prosperity, especially the first half of the 20th century, said Don Grimes, an economist with the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Michigan. Europeans were attracted first by lumbering and mining and later by the automobile industry, Grimes said. But the state became less of a magnet by the 1970s as the Big Three automakers offered fewer jobs and more immigrants remained on the East and West coasts, he said. "It would be a good idea for Michigan to try and do a better job of attracting Europeans and Asians because this problem (of losing young adults) is only going to get worse," Grimes said. As the baby boom generation retires, "all the states are going to be competing for this limited pool of young workers." Michigan leaders could help by urging federal authorities not to go overboard in post-Sept. 11 security measures, Metzger said. "If immigration policy reduces the number of people coming to Michigan to work or attend Michigan universities, we're going to be in more trouble than we are now," he said. Chaturvedi, who is married and has two children, said she did not object to cracking down on illegal immigration. But discouraging legal immigration only hurts the United States, she said. "We've contributed to this country, we've helped keep the U.S. at the leading edge of innovation," Chaturvedi said. "The more diverse we are in our ethnic background, the richer we will be."
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