Chicago Fed researcher keynoting Business 380 event

While some Iowans believe there has been a large influx of lower-income African Americans to the state from Chicago in recent years, the facts paint a different picture.

'When I looked at the data from a Gallup poll in December 2014, 1.6 percent of all the migrants to Iowa from 2007 to 2011 were African Americans,” said Marva Williams, an economic development director for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. 'That's lower than the percentage of African Americans in Iowa, which is 5.8 percent.”

Williams will discuss the income, race, poverty status, and family structure of migrants to Iowa as the keynote speaker for the Business 380 Excellence: Business & Breakfast from 7 to 9 a.m. on April 9 at the Cedar Rapids Public Library. She also will provide an improved profile of Iowans.

Williams, an urban economic development researcher, said families and individuals moving to Iowa from states like Illinois and Nebraska are drawn by a variety of factors. They include relatively higher benefits than neighboring states, more employment opportunities, better schools, lower incidences of crime, and more affordable housing.

She added that about 28 percent of migrants coming to the state are attending college or graduate school.

'The perception that teams of lower income African American families are moving to Iowa is not supported by the data,” Williams said.

She also noted that there is a larger percentage of Latinos - 17 percent - than African Americans moving to Iowa.

The Better Business Bureau is the presenting sponsor for the Business 380 Excellence: Business & Breakfast. The University of Iowa Community Credit Union and Wright Touch Catering are breakfast host sponsors. Tickets for the event are available at www.business380breakfast.eventbrite.com.