Mark Oprea
Cuyahoga County's Welcome Center, a push to make the area friendlier and more attractive to immigrants, opened on Wednesday.
The opening gives the county certification from Welcoming America, a nonprofit that grades counties and cities on their appeal for settling foreigners, from quantity of schools able to service students learning English to public transit quality and access to legal aid.
County Executive Chris Ronayne, who championed the Welcome Center's conception on the campaign trail, spoke to the assembled local politicians, nonprofits leaders and stakeholders at the opening on Wednesday.
"Imagine yourself with the shoe on the other foot, you in another country, not knowing the language, not having a job, but knowing that you have the skills and the know-how to do something purposeful in the community you've entered," he said from a podium in the center's atrium.
"That's why we want you to drop in this center. We're here."
As keen observers of city growth have witnessed in places like Toronto and Boston (the former a huge lodestar for Ronayne), facilitating access to a settled life for immigrants is key to blossoming populations. The upside is also seen in local economies: 20 percent of all new business in the U.S. is kickstarted by foreign entrepreneurs.
The role of the Welcome Center is, speakers said, to act as the one-stop bridge to a good life after arrival—to link with open jobs, find good housing, locate schools, to connect with Legal Aid, if need be. And do so in a myriad of languages.
But can this Welcome Center, situated across from a gas station at 4261 Fulton Parkway, truly have a stake in reversing Cleveland's and Cuyahoga County's long-running population decline?
"What this does is say the quiet part out loud," Joe Cimperman, the executive director of Global Cleveland, said in his office on Tuesday. "That, yes, immigration is a good thing."
Mark Oprea
Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Meredith Turner speaking on Wednesday, next to Global Cleveland head Joe Cimperman and County Executive Chris Ronanyne.
And for good competition with neighboring cities. A recent study by the Bank of America concluded that Columbus had the fastest population growth from 2023 to 2024, at a little over 1 percent.
"We need this to support our community members now," Thomas Kate, 45, an employee of ReSource Cleveland who moved to the U.S. from Myanmar in 2011, said. "When we have this, people might feel more secure. They might think, 'This is my home.' They decide to get a mortgage. They want to buy a house in Cleveland."
"And they won't do second migrations to other states anymore," Kate added.
County Councilwoman Meredith Turner, like Ronayne, found some personal stakes in the Center's opening, having helped newcomers navigate U.S. consulate services as an immigration liaison in the office of Sen. Sherrod Brown.
As Turner seemed to suggest, having a county building dedicated to helping refugees from Palestine, religious asylum seekers from Mauritania, or settling families from Ukraine would help rebrand the county in a purer democratic spirit.
"Individuals from all over the world will find sanctuary here," she said. "They fill find a place where their dreams can take flight."
And begin to take flight in—Old Brooklyn.
As for why the county didn't pursue a spot downtown, Ronayne said 2561 Fulton is "central" and "accessible," just off I-71 with RTA's 45 bus servicing the street.
The continuing influx, say, of refugees across Latin America, might beg the county to open another location. "We are not done," Ronayne told Scene after the event. "You may see us co-locate with other county offices, and specifically, you may see us downtown."
The Cuyahoga County Welcome Center is currently open Tuesday through Thursday, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. It's likely, the county said, that it will expand its staff in the near future.
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