Colorado's immigrant-owned businesses are responsible for generating a yearly average of $684 million for the state economy, according to a newly-released study.
The Fiscal Policy Institute's "Immigrant Small Business Owners" report, published June 14, also found immigrants comprise 11.7 percent of the Colorado workforce, and 9.2 percent of Colorado's business owners.
"Immigration in our state is growing," said Kathy White, deputy project director at the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute to the Denver Post. "They share our entrepreneurial spirit. While continuing to grow their businesses, they have employed people, and it's becoming an integral part of the local economy."
For a point of reference, Colorado's craft beer industry generates nearly $450 million for the state economy each year.
Nationally, 18 percent of all small business owners were born in another country.
“Immigrants are playing a particularly important role in the kinds of businesses that bring people into downtown areas and help enliven neighborhoods,” said David Dyssegaard Kallick, director of the Fiscal Policy Institute’s Immigration Research Initiative and author of the report in a press release. “Immigrants are playing an important and growing role across the American landscape. And it’s not just traditional immigrant gateways, it’s all around the country.”
The study's findings are based on three sets of data collected by the 2010 Census Bureau.