Nukic fnds success, but ew others do,as St. Louis loses its status as a melting pot
Needed: More immigrants
Beriz Nukic
P H O T O S B Y B R I A N
C A S S I D Y
BY AMIR KURTOVIC
St. Louis needs more Beriz Nukics. Manymore, according to a new study looking
at the impact o immigration, or the lack
o it, in St. Louis.
In 2002, Nukic opened a small coee
roasting company in the Bevo Mill area to sell tra-ditional Turkish coee to the Bosnian immigrant
population. Nukic, himsel a reugee rom Bosnia
who lost most o his amily in the war there, also
sold popular Bosnian oods such as Burek, Sirnica
and Doner Kebab rom the store, which barelyhad enough room or three tables and six chairs.
Today, Nukic’s coee is sold in 38 states, and
he has two restaurants, one in a building he
bought at 5053 Gravois Road and one in a6,000-square-oot strip mall he built in south
St. Louis County, at the intersection o Reavis
Barracks and Lemay Ferry roads. In 2010, he
launched a roz en oods business, selling tradi-
tional Bosnian dishes in grocery chains such asSchnucks, Dierbergs and in stores in 29 other
states. He employs about a dozen people and
plans to keep expanding his dist ribution o co-
ee and rozen oods around the country.
But Nukic’s story, is not as common here assome would like it to be.
Nationally, immigrants make up about 13 per-
cent o the population but were responsible or 28
percent o all businesses started in 2011, accord-
ing to the 2011 Kauman Index o Entrepreneur-
ial Activity, published by the Kauman Founda-tion o Entrepreneurship.
St. Louis lags ar behind the national numbers.
Once a melting pot o immigrants, about 20 per-
cent o St. Louisans were oreign-born at the turn
o the last century. That number now sits at about4.5 percent.
“Reugees and immigrants start a d ispropor-
tionately high number o businesses in this
country, and we could be doing a heck o a lot
better i we had even more immigrants,” saidAnna Crosslin, president and CEO o the Inter-
national Institute, a nonprot that helps reu-
gees resettle here.
The St. Louis County Economic Council, the St.
Louis Development Corp., the World Trade CenterSt. Louis and the International Institute o St.
Louis have put together a study to measure the
economic impact o oreign-born people in St.
Louis and to determine what the region can do toimprove its standing. The study, which cost
$25,000 and was paid or by the William T. Kem-
per Foundation, will be published June 19, but it
clearly shows that the lack o immigration im-
pacts the region’s economic and income growth,
said Tim Nowak, executive director o the World
Trade Center, St. Louis.Other Top 20 metropolitan areas have our to
ves times the number o oreign-born resi-
dents and have averaged 40 percent aster
economic growth over the past decade, ac-
cording to the executive summary o thestudy provided to the St. Louis Business Journal. I St. Louis would have kept pace
with those cities in attracting immi-
grants, income growth would have been
4 percent to 7 percent higher and hous-ing prices would be 26 percent higher in
the city o St. Louis and 20 percent
higher in St. Louis County over the last
decade, according to the study, whichwas authored by Saint Louis University
economics proessor Jack Strauss.
And it’s not just ethnic restaurants a nd
small businesses that Nowak has in mind.
Immigrants started 25 percent o U.S. publiccompanies that received venture capital since
1991, according to a 2006 study published by
the National Venture Capital Association. The
names o some o those companies may ring a
bell: Intel, Google, Yahoo! and eBay all all intothat category.
One o St. Louis’ biggest success stories on the
immigrant ront is Rose International, an IT con-
sulting company started in 1993 by a husband
and wie duo o Indian immigrants. Sue Bhatia,the CEO o Rose International, came to the U.S. in
1987 and enrolled in a master’s program at the
University o Missouri, St. Louis. Ater working lo-
cally in the IT industry, including or McDonnell
Douglas, Bhatia and her husband, Gulab, decidedto put their skills to work on their own terms.
Almost two decades later, their company has
about 6,000 employees and reported 2011 reve-
nue o $360 million. Rose International has 20 o-ces across the country and a sotware develop-
ment acility in New Delhi, India.
“The only reason immigrants choose to stay
in the popular immigrant cities such as San
Francisco and New York is due to their owncommunity ties and support,” Bhatia said. “In
1987, there was only one Indian grocery store
and very ew Indian amilies (in St. Louis). For
most people, that can be lonely, unless you are
open to embrace the local community.”While the International Institute and area
Catholic organizations have helped to resettle
reugees here, Crosslin said the region has not
done a good job o attracting oreign-born peo-
ple who enter the country through the regularimmigration process.
A 2006 review o Census numbers by the
Brookings Institution ound that St. Louis
ranked 21st in number o reugees but a d ismal
60th in the amount o oreign-born residents.In comparison, Chicago ranked third in both
categories.
The dierence o the economic impact be-
tween reugees and immigrants oten boilsdown to education. While reugees came to
the U.S. because o wars, persecution and
economic and political instability, immi-
grants oten come because they have mar-
ketable skills in high-demand industries orbecause they seek more opportunities or
their children.
Attracting more oreign-born people is espe-
cially important or the city o St. Louis, which
has seen population declines or decades,Crosslin said. City population decreased rom
about 395,000 to less than 320,000 between
1990 and 2010, according to the U.S. Census
Bureau. Reugees were the city’s single largest
infow o population during that period, whenclose to 7,000 reugees rom Bosnia and Her-
zegovina settled mostly in the South City area,
Crosslin said.
Those 7,000 led to secondary migration as
VOL. 32, NO. 43 48 PAGES stlouis.bizjournals.com June 15-21, 2012 $2.00
St.Louis Business Journal
COUNTRY
OF ORIGIN TOTAL
Bosnia 6,712
Vietnam 4,093
Somalia 1,100
Arica* 804
Laos 766
Aghanistan 759
Europe* 579
Bhutan 579
Top places of origin
Resettled by International Institute o St. Louis1979 - March 2012
George John, an Indian immigrant
came to St. Louis in 1971 at age 10,
“My parents said we could be anything
we wanted, as long as it was either a
doctor, an engineer or an accoun-
tant,” John said.
John became an engineer, and at age
33 started EDSI Engineers and Sur-
veyors, a company he has since
grown to 32 employees that have
handled major projects or the city o
St. Louis, Chestereld, the Metropol-
itan Sewer District and the Missouri
Department o Transportation,
among other clients.
John, who is also the new president o
the 120-member St. Louis chapter o
the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, said
the region needs to attract more im-
migrants who want to start business
here. “A lot o the people who come
here now, especially the IT olks rom
India, they’re not entrepreneurs,”
Fouad Wehbe came to St. Louis rom
Lebanon in 1983 to study engineer-
ing at Washington University. But
when he got his degree in 1988, he
was aced with a sluggish economy
and tough job market. Instead o wait-
ing or a good job oer, he went into
business or himsel, opening a small
grocery store in north St. Louis City.
In 1995 he opened Wehbe’s Cae
downtown, a small sandwich and
coee shop that counted among its
customers both Francis Slay Sr. and
his son and St. Louis Mayor Francis
Slay, who also have Lebanese roots.
Wehbe’s Cae closed in 2007, ater a
ailed expansion to Chestereld let
the small business saddled with
debt, Wehbe said. But he is now
back downtown in the same location
with Tortilla Grille, which opened in
July 2011 and eatures a usion menu
o wraps and oods popular around
Louis now is estimated t o be between 60,000to 70,000, Crosslin said.
The early Bosnian reugees orme d a nucleus
in south St. Louis City, opening restaurants,
bars, bakeries, butcher shops and ethnic gro-
cery stores and revitalizing the area.The Bosnian community mirrored the Viet-
namese reugees, who began arriving in St.
Louis in the early 1980s and were the early
catalyst that led to the revitalization o South
Grand Boulevard, Crosslin said. The Interna-tional Institute has sponsored about 4,000
Vietnamese reugees since 1979. But both o those groups o immigrants resettled ater
brutal wars in their countries.
Economic development ocials expect the
new study to demonstrate why the region
could use more immigration, maybe notprompted by an international confict.
“It is our hope that when we roll this out that
the leaders in the region put together a task
orce to look at what we can be doing not only
to attract immigrants but also to retain them,”Nowak said.
Engineer from India
Sawa Harjo, a 36-year-old reugee
rom the war-ravaged Arican na-
tion o Sierra Leon, sells beauty
supplies ve days a week at area
fea markets.
Harjo, who came to St. Louis in
1999, also works ull time or the
Missouri Department o Mental
Health as a developmental assis-
tant, helping people suering rom
mental disorders.
She decided to open her business in
2009 because, she said, it was in
her blood.
“My mother and ather were all busi-
ness people, so it’s a amily thing.
When I rst came here, it was con-
using and I didn’t know what I had
to do to start a business, but I got
more comortable later,” Harjo said.
Her story is amiliar to many who deal
with reugees and immigrants in St.
Louis. Ater getting settled in, learn-
Sierra Leon supplier Lebanon to lunches
SUE
BHATIA
Has grown Rose
International to
$360 million in revenue
Those 7,000 led to secondary migration as
reugees started bringing over amily mem-bers and attracting other Bosnians rom
across the U.S. The Bosnian population in St.
Bhutan 579
Iraq 467
Cuba 382
* Compiles data from nations with smaller representation.
India, they’re not entrepreneurs,”
John said. “They’re working ulltime
on temporary visas and they eventu-
ally go back or move to other cities.”
o wraps and oods popular around
the world. The restaurant employs
our people and serves about 130
customers daily.
Louis. Ater getting settled in, learn-
ing the language and the culture,
many o them start businesses.
Reprinted with permission from the St. Louis Business Journal. Alteration or further reproduction is strictly prohibited. ©2012 St. Louis Business Journal, 815 Olive Street, Suite 100, St. Louis, MO 63101
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