Claudine Gasana can relate to her students at Second Start. She arrived in New Hampshire as a high school student from Rwanda, speaking no English.

She graduated from Concord High School and Keene State College. Now, she works both at Second Start, and with the Concord School District, in their family centers. 

Gasana’s story represents that of many immigrants in New Hampshire. She left Rwanda due to political violence, eventually came to the United States and earned advanced degrees. 

While New Hampshire faces challenges with an aging demographic, population decline and recruitment to the labor force, the state’s immigrant population is filling those roles in the workforce.

That trend needs to continue, according to analysis from Brian Gottlob, the director of the state’s economic and labor market information bureau.

“We’re going to have to make ourselves open to people from other countries, welcoming people from other countries. That’s how we are going to grow at our strongest,” he said at a conference Wednesday. “The migration that we get from other countries really adds significantly to the skill level of our workforce and in our population.”

Jean Hakuzimana wanted to reinforce that immigrants are an integral piece of New Hampshire’s economy with NH Songa, a nonprofit he founded. This week, he hosted its second annual Moving Together Conversations conference about immigrants in the state’s workforce. That conversation is even more timely this year, he said.

After an election cycle of divisive political rhetoric on immigration – calls to close borders, deport people in large swaths, false accusations about eating cats and dogs and a crusade against sanctuary cities – it’s all the more important to continue to advocate for and uplift immigrant contributions to New Hampshire’s economy, he said.

“There is nothing greater you can do than education,” he said. “Educating, letting people know what’s going on, what is at stake, how they can be helpful to one another. That’s my goal.”

Education lies in stories from Gasana and others, who candidly talked about navigating cultural barriers and language differences and finding support in their careers. Education can be more analytical, too, with U.S. Census data quantifying exact contributions to economic sectors. For example, immigrant employment dominates manufacturing industries, scientific and technical services and wholesale trade.

Recent five-year estimates from 2022 show that just over 83,000 residents, or 6 percent of people in New Hampshire are foreign-born. Of that, 60 percent are naturalized citizens, according to Census data.

Policy conversations, though, both at the federal and state level, give Gottlob pause – particularly for the 40 percent of immigrants who are in New Hampshire on visas, green cards or as refugees and asylum seekers.

“We ought to all be paying attention to what happens to immigration policy because it will likely have an impact on the New Hampshire economy,” he said.

Amy Moore agrees. As the director of Ascentria’s in-home care program, she has her attention turned to conversations about immigration policy.

“These policy decisions affect us. They affect our workforce,” she said. “The most important thing that we can do in the next few years … is become really vocal about how important this workforce is.”

At Ascentria, Moore has advocated to support immigrant employees from increasing hourly earnings to providing translation services, mentoring programs and therapeutic support for direct care providers.

This support will only be more crucial as conversations play out among state leaders, she said.

“Publicly going out and speaking against and showing up when our policies or different legislation is going to be harmful for those folks, that’s really the first step,” she said.

Hakuzimana hopes that national rhetoric is inflating conversation in New Hampshire, currently. With the election finished he hopes that community support and conversations, like the one started by NH Songa’s conference, can help ground people, again.

He has ideas of how to do so, as well.

Hakuzimana envisions starting a training center, where he and others can help connect new immigrants to resources in New Hampshire. He thinks of his own experience – wondering how to pursue an education while working at the concrete company. He hopes to provide guidance on questions like these for others.

And above all, he sees this current political climate as a calling to speak out. He’s seen what hateful rhetoric can do to a country. He watched Rwanda erupt into genocide, killing hundreds of thousands and pushing out even more people, like himself.

“I saw it by my own eyes,” he said. “Whenever I see someone bringing hate in the game, I feel a responsibility to educate. I feel like I’m on the front to do something.”