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Celebrating the contributions of all Arizona workers this Labor Day!

The AZCenter celebrates the contributions of all Arizona workers this Labor Day. We honor the activists who worked to secure better working conditions and an additional day of rest for American workers when the first Monday in September was declared a national holiday in 1894.  

In Arizona, 13 percent of our residents are individuals who were born outside of the United States. Collectively, these immigrants contribute over $175 billion to our state’s economy each year. See our earlier blog post for more information on how immigrants fuel Arizona’s economy. 

The AZCenter is also embarking on a two-year project to develop a report on the “State of Immigrant Labor in Arizona.” Our report will feature expert analysis from policy institutes, our state universities, labor organizations, immigrant rights groups, and workforce training entities. These experts will provide valuable feedback based on the immigrant experiences they hear from their program participants, while others will offer their perspectives on statewide immigrant labor data and trends. Our report will highlight the contributions of immigrants to our state’s economy by providing an overview of the immigrant population in Arizona, analyzing the challenges immigrant workers face, examining the importance of immigrants in key industries such as agriculture, healthcare, and technology, and discussing policies that could be instituted to better. 

If you have any research or stories regarding the economic contributions of Arizona immigrants you would like to share, please get in touch with us at info@azeconcenter.org or (602) 560-2010.  

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