Nukic fnds success, but ew others do,as St. Louis loses its status as a melting pot

Needed: More immigrants

Beriz Nukic

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BY AMIR KURTOVIC

akurtovic@bizjournals.com

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.

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