Everyone knows that Napa’s wine economy is powered largely by immigrant labor. In an article we published last November, we cited a Napa Community Foundation study examining this immigrant-fueled GDP:
“The study found that immigrants comprise 73 percent of all agricultural workers and contribute between $317 million and $1.07 billion to the county’s overall gross domestic product.”
That’s out of an estimated $7.18 billion for the year 2009.
This weekend, a Napa Valley Register article localized immigration reform issues by examining policy proposed by a group of senators in late January. The article states that the wine county had an immigrant population of 32,000 in 2010, almost a quarter of its entire population. Estimates of those who are undocumented range from 10,000-16,000, or almost half the immigrant population. And, as our article back in November pointed out, much of Napa’s ag workforce—those contributing to that nice $1.07 billion GDP—live in surrounding counties.
You can read the NVR article here.
You can read about the policy proposals here.
