Immigrants are our neighbors, co-workers, fellow taxpayers, business owners, and civic leaders in New Hampshire. They have long been woven into the fabric of the state, contributing to its economy, culture and quality of life.

The state’s foreign-born population is made up of legal immigrants – both citizens and non-citizens – undocumented immigrants and temporary residents, such as students and workers on temporary visas.

Together, they represent an increasing proportion of the state’s population and significantly affect the state’s economic, social and cultural future.

Historically, New Hampshire has been a destination for immigrants. A workforce was needed as industrialization grew and mills began to line the banks of the Merrimack River. For example, many French Canadians moved to the state after the Civil War to work in textile mills. Today, about one-fourth of the state is of French-Canadian descent. In the late 1800s, waves of more immigrants came to take jobs in the mills, most of them from Europe

By the turn of the 20th century, 88,000 foreign-born people lived in New Hampshire – about 21% of the population.

In 2022, according to American Immigration Council data, New Hampshire had about 82,000 foreign-born residents, nearly 6% of the state’s population. They make up about 7% of the labor force, including 11.3% of the manufacturing workforce and 13.4% of all science, technology and math (STEM) workers in the state.

Between 2013 and 2023, 2,672 people moved to New Hampshire under the federal government’s refugee resettlement program – a total that gives the state the 12th highest percentage of refugee arrivals per capita, with 192 arrivals per 100,000 residents. Refugees are people determined by the government to have a well-founded fear of persecution. They are extensively vetted, and typically the process of being granted asylum takes multiple years.

Another segment of the foreign-born population in New Hampshire is made up of undocumented migrants. It’s estimated there are about 9,500 of them in New Hampshire – 11.6% of the total immigrant population and 0.7% of the state’s total population. Some 86.5% of them are of working age.

Economic impact

Significantly, according to the American Immigration Council, the total household income of New Hampshire immigrants in 2022, was $4.4 billion, with $3.3 billion in spending power. They paid $1.1 billion in taxes – $262.2 million to state and local coffers, and $849.4 million to the federal government. They added $460.3 million in Social Security taxes and $128.5 million in Medicare taxes.

The state has a significant population of international students – in 2022 3,767 foreign-born students were attending New Hampshire colleges and universities. Together, they contributed $161.3 million to the economy and supported more than 1,500 jobs in the state. (One common path to citizenship begins with the quest for education and then the adoption of the U.S. as home.)

Also in 2022, there were 20,800 immigrant homeowners in New Hampshire – which amounts to $9.9 billion in household wealth. The same data shows that 6.2% of homebuyers were immigrants at the time, and households headed by an immigrant paid $248.8 million in rent.

About 2.6 million people were authorized to immigrate to the United States in 2022. Most came as temporary workers, students or individuals joining their families already in the country. There are H-1B visas for specialized occupations, H-2A visas for agricultural workers, and F-1 and J-1 visas for students. Lawful permanent residents of the United States can sponsor relatives to move here using the family-based visa system.

Refugees

According to the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services, refugees from about 50 countries have arrived in the state over the last decade. Asylum visas have been granted for citizens of specific countries including Ukraine, Venezuela and Haiti. In New Hampshire, about 350 individuals, nonprofits and religious groups committed to becoming financially supportive of Ukrainian citizens who were fleeing the war there and were granted two-year parole status visas. They have been helped with housing, employment and assimilation services.

Worldwide, the need for support for refugees is overwhelming. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as of October 2024 worldwide, there were more than 122 million people around the world who have been forcibly displaced as a result of conflict, persecution, violence or human rights violations. Among them are:

■37.9 million refugees.

■68.3 million internally displaced people.

■8 million asylum seekers.

■5.8 million people in need of international protection, a majority of whom are from Venezuela.

Frequent and more extreme weather events attributed to climate change also have contributed to the increased number of refugees. In 2022, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs data, nearly 32 million people were displaced by floods, cyclones and droughts – a 41% increase from 200.

Opinions on immigration

A Granite State Poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center in March 2024 revealed a mixed range of opinions about immigration, with Granite Staters’ opinions varying, depending on immigration status.

According to the poll 83% of those surveyed considered illegal immigration a very serious (58%) or somewhat serious (25%) problem. They generally held a favorable view of legal immigration, and a plurality (43%) said they think it should be much easier (17% ) or somewhat easier (26%) for people to immigrate to the United States. Opinion on asylum was split – 36% think it should be easier, 44% think it should be harder and 23% think the system should remain the same.

When asked about their overall view of immigrants in general, regardless of status, 57% said they felt immigrants strengthen the nation’s economy because of their hard work and talents; 32% said immigrants are a burden because they take jobs, housing and health care; and 11% said they were unsure of the impacts of immigrants.

Ekoue Abroussa: ‘The people who are giving education, they are the best people in New Hampshire’

Country of Origin: Togo.

Now living in Concord

Ekoue Abroussa’s family became refugees because his father worked for the government in the West African country of Togo. Due to political upheaval and ultimately civil war, his family, parents, and five siblings became refugees in Benin.

They resided in the camps for multiple years and, while in Benin, he attended trade school, learning photography. Lutheran Services helped them in the refugee camps with asylum applications to Canada, the U.S., and Australia.

In 2014, when he was 19, seven members of his family immigrated here on asylum visas and joined a community of families in the Concord area they knew from the Benin refugee camps.. His wife and a son remain in Africa and he is still working on getting them here.

He currently has a green card and is in line for naturalization. He operates a photo studio in downtown Concord that caters to the local African immigrant communities. He is a true entrepreneur who embraces the opportunities in America. He credits the support he received as a newly arrived refugee for getting established as a business owner in Concord.

“The schools were great and the Small Business Development Center is very supportive. They help you to develop your business, you know, they teach how to do your taxes and how to do QuickBooks and how to do your bookings and all of the education. In the NHTI International Student Program, the educators are great. So you have to say that the people who are giving education, they are the best people in New Hampshire.”

He takes pains to describe the positive parts of his experience and his gratitude for being here. It has not all been easy and he describes an uneasy relationship at times between police and African immigrants. Common friction points cited by Ekoue include frequent traffic stops they consider profiling, language issues, and misunderstanding of culture.

However, Ekoue notes that the Concord Police Department has a Liberian-born officer who has been a bridge to the community. Local nonprofit Change for Concord is advocating on the community’s behalf to work out solutions and support the integration of different cultures.

Maria Elena Letona: ‘I’m actually very scared for the United States as a country’

Country of origin: El Salvador.

Now living in Manchester

Maria Elena Letona’s journey to America began as a girl at the age of 13. She was the eldest of three sisters in a very unstable and traumatic home situation in El Salvador. She arrived in East Los Angeles in 1974 and her sisters followed.

“My dad wanted us to finish the sixth grade in our native country. He wanted to make sure that we never forgot how to speak the language, write it, and read it. So each of us had to finish grammar school before coming to the United States.”

Her mother petitioned so they became legal residents and in 1989 she became a naturalized citizen. She was the director of an immigrant rights group in Cambridge, Mass., for 10 years. A marriage later in life brought her to New Hampshire.

On her experience of living in New Hampshire, she said, “I have been welcomed, and I have had a most wonderful experience with people, and I think it’s because of this ‘live free’ kind of feel to it, that people just accept all kinds of ways of thinking, ways of being. I don’t know what it is, but I have been pleasantly surprised. The people are friendly, are warm. I’ve never felt, you know, looked down upon. I’ve never been made to feel uncomfortable,” she said.

Her thoughts on how immigrants are regarded now: “When I came, it was 1974. I don’t remember any of those terrible feelings toward immigrants back then. I don’t. This has been something that has been manufactured. And there’s a reason why they’re manufacturing it. I don’t know what they are, or what the reasons are. But there’s something going on.”

“And I fear that it’s not going to be very good for us as a society, as a person that comes from a country that was ruled by a military dictatorship for decades. I can tell the signs of dictator-like leaders, right? I can tell the signs of the lies they spin to control and manipulate. I can tell that they want that kind of power. And I’m actually very scared for the United States as a country, more than I am scared of what’s going to happen to us because we are going to be the canary in the mine. That’s all. They’re going to continue going after others.”

This project was made possible through support from the Eppes-Jefferson Foundation. The Granite State News Collaborative and Ink Link maintained editorial control over the contents. These articles are being shared with the partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more, visit collabortivenh.org.