This is how you solve a major Alabama problem. This is why Alabama won’t do it.

  Our governor likes to say Alabama is “open for business.” Our leaders insist we are the most “pro-business” state in the nation.

  This is, of course, situational. Private solar panel companies are effectively shut out of Alabama, thanks to a rooftop solar tax supported by Alabama Power and maintained by the Public Service Commission.

  And the love of free markets and enterprise doesn’t extend to workers who take the initiative and try to get the best deal for their labor. That’s when celebrations of entrepreneurship turn into demands for obedience. (Nothing seems to enrage an Alabama politician more than the thought of an employee talking back.)

  We also see this conditional support for business when we talk about the state’s workforce participation rate. Our leaders say they want to address it. But only up to a certain point.

  Alabama has long struggled to get everyone who can work to do so. In June, about 58% of those who could work or look for a job in Alabama were in the workforce, compared with 62.5% of the country as a whole.

  This lag goes back to 1976, if not earlier. Lack of access to affordable child care burdens workers. So do gaps in education and training. Transportation is another obstacle. The absence of mass transit in many parts of the state means those who can’t afford automobiles are stuck.

  It’s a particular problem in rural areas, in part due to infrastructure challenges. In the most recent list of county workforce participation rates, only one of Alabama’s major urban areas (Mobile) fell below the state average.

  But another significant factor is the aging of rural Alabama. The state as a whole is slightly older (median age 39.6 years) than the nation (39.2 years). But in Perry County, where the workforce participation rate was 35.4% in May, the median age is 42.5 years. In Tallapoosa County, where less than 49% of the population is in the workforce, it’s 45.4 years.

  Getting younger people in the state will help boost workforce participation rates. And there’s a pretty obvious way to do that.

  Immigration.

  Among Hispanic Alabamians, one-third of whom were born outside the country, the median age is 24. Among Black Alabamians, with an immigrant population of 1.2%, the median age is 35. Among white Alabamians, of whom 1% are foreign-born, it’s almost 43. (The median age among the smaller Asian communities in the state is 37; over two-thirds of people in those groups were born outside the country.)

  This doesn’t mean immigration on its own will solve our labor issues. Alabama will not attract the jobs that would bring people into struggling areas if infrastructure problems persist.

  But bringing immigrants here would help. Not only are their participation rates higher than the country’s as a whole, the groups with the largest percentage of immigrants are having more children, who will eventually enter the workforce.

  And yet, we are not doing that. We are persecuting the foreign-born.

  It’s not enough that Gov. Kay Ivey can cut ads shamelessly mocking Hispanic immigrants. Now we have law enforcement agencies, apparently with no serious crimes to address, signing up to harass people for the high crime of not being a native-born Alabamian.

  According to al.com, authorities arrested nearly 2,000 immigrants in the state through the end of June, more than had been arrested through all of 2024.

  This is called a crackdown on people with criminal records. That’s facetious. In most of these cases, “criminal record” does not mean murder, assault or robbery. Just 3% of ICE arrests in Alabama involve violent criminals. it means being in the country without authorization, even if you’ve abided by every other law and paid taxes.

  These are not people causing chaos. They are men and women seeking opportunities and trapped in a system that makes it very difficult to come to the United States legally.

  One would hope the horrific treatment of people detained under this regime would cause some reflection. Our leaders, though, have no problem with terrorizing and traumatizing people they dislike, particularly women and transgender youth seeking health care.

  So let’s go back to business. Every state official from Ivey on down claims to want to improve the workforce participation rate. Immigration would be a useful way to do that.

  But instead, we have a state government all but cheering attacks on immigrants and discouraging them from coming here.

  It’s hateful and wasteful and destructive. We once again look like the unquestioning toadies of whatever conservative figure holds the throne at the moment. And we give young people, whatever their national origin, even more reason to leave our state.

  Which only adds to our workforce participation problems. But that doesn’t matter to our state leaders. The only “pro-business” attitude they have is ensuring workers obey their employers. And they’ll happily terrorize large swathes of our population to do so.

  About the author: Brian Lyman is the editor of Alabama Reflector. He has covered Alabama politics since 2006, and worked at the Montgomery Advertiser, the Press-Register and The Anniston Star. A 2024 Pulitzer finalist for Commentary, his work has also won awards from the Associated Press Managing Editors, the Alabama Press Association and Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights.

 

  This article was published by Alabama Reflector, which is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.