About 10% of Massachusetts’ workforce has “limited English proficiency,” according to a new report from two DEI-advocacy organizations.
On Monday, MassINC, a nonprofit that promotes “inclusive” economic opportunity in Massachusetts, and the UMass Donahue Institute, which wants to “advance equity and social justice” as part of the University of Massachusetts President’s Office’s public and economic outreach, announced report They are calling for improvements in “English Language Education for Non-Native Speakers” (ESOL) services.
“Massachusetts cannot continue to fund illegal and inadmissible immigrants around the world. We do not have the capacity or the funds to do so.”
The report argued that the need for ESOL is “urgent” because approximately 480,000 Massachusetts residents — about 10 percent of the state’s workforce — lack critical English language skills. Such language barriers prevent these “newcomers” from “reaching their full potential” and making more substantial contributions to “the state’s social and economic vitality,” the report said.
Moreover, the report suggests that these figures may now be out of date, as they are based on data from 2022. As the only right-of-refuge state in the commonwealth, Massachusetts has seen its immigrant population soar with thousands of undocumented immigrants being deported across the border over the past few years.
Massachusetts’ immigrant population is growing so out of control that far-left Governor Maura Healey has begun offering illegal immigrants free flights out of the state. “I want to be especially clear to people outside of Massachusetts who may be hearing this is the place to come, but Massachusetts cannot afford it,” Governor Healey said Tuesday.
Despite the growing number of immigrants, the MassINC/UMass Donahue Institute report worries that not enough is being done to accommodate them: “While Massachusetts has developed a number of creative models to provide these services, state and federal ESOL spending has not kept pace with the growth of the foreign-born population.”
The report’s authors also lamented that the government is not responding adequately to immigrants’ needs, noting that many “have limited access to transportation and struggle to find time to take classes around work and child care responsibilities. Still, they believe that improving immigrants’ English proficiency by just one level could generate $3 billion in additional revenue. New York Post Said.
Paul Craney of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance is less optimistic about the economic benefits of increasing ESOL programs and services, arguing that they will attract more immigrants, further straining an already stretched system.
“This report proves what many of us have long feared: this is not a sustainable way for our state to operate going forward,” Craney told The Blaze News. “Massachusetts cannot continue to subsidize illegal and inadmissible immigrants around the world. We do not have the capacity or the funds. Massachusetts is the most generous state in terms of welfare benefits for illegal and inadmissible immigrants, and Governor Maura Healey needs to eliminate these attractions that make our state a top migration destination.”
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