Political

A town that welcomes immigrants: Dayton, Ohio USA

Dayton, Ohio was in 1995 the scene for some belated, but very welcome, military intimidation by the US government.

Finally exercising some serious diplomatic muscle in an attempt to bring peace to the former Yugoslavia, the US government hosted peace talks at the city’s huge air force base, using the not so subtle backdrop to help pressure the participants into agreeing a deal or see those planes headed towards former Yugoslavia to enforce a settlement instead. The resulting Dayton Agreement brought to an end the three and a half years long Bosnian War.

Now Dayton has another claim to international fame and interest – its remarkably positive approach to immigration, setting out to be the most welcoming places for immigrants in the US. Not for Dayton hostility to outsiders in the face of economic decline in traditional industries. Instead, the city is enthusiastically welcoming in outsiders in a bid to boost its economy and community.

As the New York Times recently reported:

Fighting back from the ravages of industrial decline, this city adopted a novel plan two years ago to revive its economy and its spirits: become a magnet for immigrants…

In north Dayton — until recently a post-apocalyptic landscape of vacant, gutted houses — 400 Turkish families have moved in, many coming from other American cities. Now white picket fences, new roofs and freshly painted porches are signs of a brisk urban renewal led by the immigrants, one clapboard house at a time.

“We want to invest in the places where we are accepted better,” said Islom Shakhbandarov, a Turkish immigrant leader. “And we are accepted better in Dayton.”…

The momentum for change in Dayton came from the immigrants. In 2010, Mr. Shakhbandarov told the newly elected mayor, Gary Leitzell, that he was thinking of asking Turkish immigrants across the United States to settle here. Most of the Turks in Dayton are refugees who fled persecution in Russia and other former Soviet bloc countries.

Mr. Leitzell was intrigued. “I said, the worst thing that could happen is that 4,000 Turkish families could come to Dayton and fix up 4,000 houses,” the mayor recalled. “So how do we facilitate their success?”

With 14,000 empty dwellings in the city, officials were open to trying something different.

The point about empty housing is an important one, and one which makes Dayton very different from some parts of Britain. However there are others (especially in northern England) where large numbers of houses lie empty, often being demolished despite the huge shortages of housing elsewhere.

You can read more about the Dayton approach on the Welcome Dayton: immigrant friendly city website. It’s particularly relevant given the broader immigration challenge facing many western countries in the decades to come: how to attract immigrants.

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