While immigration reform has sparked a national and international outcry for a resolution, cities in the Midwest are coming up with innovative ways to make the best of a difficult situation while strengthening local economies that have been in dire need of a boost.

The city of Dayton, Ohio spearheaded an immigration integration movement two years ago, putting its spin on immigration reform by transitioning itself into an "immigrant friendly city."

According to the Dayton City Commission, it voted to make the city immigrant friendly, with programs to attract newcomers and encourage those already here, as a way to help stem job losses and a drop in population.

"Dayton is a community initiative that reflects our country's core philosophy: people with diverse backgrounds, skills and experiences fuel our nation's success.  The Welcome Dayton effort promotes immigrant integration into the greater Dayton region by encouraging business and economic development; providing access to education, government, health and social services; ensuring equity in the justice system; and promoting an appreciation of arts and culture."

Alvaro Maurice, CEO, Conquistador Consulting LLC, who is originally from Caracas, Venezuela and has lived predominantly in Dayton, says the area has been "very family-inclusive, and "it also has a progressive nature I very much enjoy."

"There is a very diverse immigrant population here. I'm involved in various young professionals groups, including one for Hispanic young professionals. Part of the goals of these networking groups should be to reach out to these various immigrant communities and include them in the conversation. There are several different sub-populations here in the city, and I would love to see if we can collaborate and share ideas to cross boundaries between the Hispanic community and the Turkish community, for instance, and the African community, all the subsets of Dayton culture."

The New York Times points that Dayton had 14,000 empty dwellings, so city officials decided to take another approach by looking at how to fill this void - "Officials quickly realized that this city of 141,000 already had a small but fast-growing foreign-born population: more than 10,000 Muslims from different countries; refugees from Burundi and Somalia; college students from China, India and Saudi Arabia; Filipinos in health care jobs; and laborers from Latin America, many here illegally."

"The hospitals, the police, the libraries, the service agencies, the landlords, they were all dealing with immigrants, but no one was talking about it," said Tim Riordan, the city manager. "So we brought it out of the shadows."

Was there opposition to the immigration integration in Dayton?

"The officials hosted many town meetings to test whether Dayton's residents were ready to be hospitable. But the only vocal resistance came from anti-illegal-immigrant groups from other Ohio cities. In October 2011, the City Commission voted unanimously for the Welcome Dayton plan," the NY Times adds.

The entire area forged ahead with the immigrant integration initiative by working with local organizations, finding interpreters for public offices, adding foreign-language books in libraries and arranging English classes. 

Local groups also stepped in and gave courses for immigrants opening small businesses and helped families of refugees and foreign students, the NY Times adds. "City officials worked with Wright State University, a public institution, to find ways for immigrant doctors and engineers to cut through bureaucracy and gain certifications so they could practice in the United States."

The Dayton Commission points out that many immigrants have an entrepreneurial spirit and if nurtured it can be beneficial for all:

Immigrants are 30 percent more likely to start their own business.

Small businesses owned by immigrants employed an estimated 4.7 million people in 2007 and generated more than $776 billion annually.

Asian-owned businesses in Ohio have sales and receipts of $6.8 billion. Latino owned businesses in Ohio have sales and receipts of $2.3 billion.

The purchasing power of Ohio's Latino population and Asian population, respectively is $7.7 billion and $7.3 billion.

Ohio has 22,370 foreign students who contribute $583.9 million to the state economy.

38.6% of foreign-born adults in Ohio have a bachelor's degree or higher.

More than 87 percent of Ohio children with immigrant parents are English-proficient. (Immigration Policy Center)

Ironically, there's a power political figure close by who has a "major impact" on Immigration Reform in Washington. Republican speaker of the House, John A. Boehner's district wraps around the city of Dayton on three sides, the NY Times points out.

Dayton officials aren't holding their breath for Congress, however.

"We've found that we can repopulate our city and we can educate the people and inspire them to employ themselves," Mayor Leitzell said. "In 10 years, when the federal government figures everything out, we'll be thriving."

Other immigrant-friendly cities include: Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Lansing, Mich., as well as Detroit.