The last twelve months have been dispiriting for advocates of comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). First CIR didn't make it onto the 2010 legislative agenda. Then Arizona passed SB 1070, and other states expressed interest in following suit. Then the DREAM Act failed to pass the Senate and the new House of Representatives leadership changed direction in terms of that body's approach to immigration reform. And, through it all, the national conversation kept getting nastier, going as far as proposals to repeal the 14th Amendment's birthright citizenship provision.
So, amidst all the gloom, are there any glimmers of hope for pro-immigrant advocates?
Well, the climate still looks very unfriendly, but a recent push from large investors could augur well for the years ahead.
Last week, a group of institutional investors--led by the Comptroller of the City of New York, John Liu, and senior management from Mercy Investment Services, Inc., Boston Common Asset Management, Walden Asset Management (disclosure: I've collaborated with Walden on other shareholder initiatives), and the Unitarian Universalist Association--sent letters to roughly 150 CEOs of large corporations asking them to publicly express their support for sensible immigration reform. The signatories of the letter are no fringe activists--they manage assets in excess of $145 billion, and they have a fiduciary responsibility to manage that money responsibly.
This may make you wonder: why should investors and corporations support immigration reform? The answer comes from the CEOs of American corporations who have signed onto Mayor Mike Bloomberg's Partnership for a New American Economy. The Partnership is an alliance of over 150 business CEOs--leading companies like Microsoft, News Corporation, Disney, JP Morgan, Xerox, and Pricewaterhouse Coopers--and mayors who advocate CIR for several reasons, including:
1. Immigrant innovation--from 1995-2005, over 25 percent of American engineering and technology companies had at least one immigrant founder.
2. Young immigrant talent--educating high-skilled immigrants without creating pathways for them to stay and work here is counter-productive. As the American population ages, we should be embracing talented young people, not showing them the door.
3. Complementary immigrant labor--immigrants mostly do labor that is complementary, rather than substitutive of, non-immigrant labor. Consider agriculture, where each on-farm job (such as picking fruit, mostly done by immigrants) supports over three off-farm jobs, such as processing, shipping, and sales.
In short, contrary to the scare stories coming out of the Republican House leadership, like Elton Gallegly (R-CA), Lamar Smith (R-TX), and Steve King (R-IA), immigration helps the economy, and companies rely on immigrant innovation, talent and complementary labor to thrive.
This is why Bloomberg's Partnership and other initiatives--including businesses affiliated with the Americas Society and Council of the Americas' Hispanic Integration Hub--eschew efforts to villify immigrants and instead embrace initiatives for immigrant integration. Our economy needs immigrants' labor and hard work, and efforts like expanding English-language education facilitate economic participation, both as employees and customers. In the words of Brent Warren, VP of Banner Bank of Oregon, "it just makes good business sense."
Moreover, business leaders in the Partnership recognize the financial impossibility of deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants and the massive economic benefit of instead offering them a pathway to citizenship. Already, undocumented people contribute to our economy with their labor, their consumption, and the taxes and Social Security they pay. Bringing workers out of the shadows would make things easier for employers and immigrant employees alike and expand immigrants' economic contributions.
With any luck, last week's letter from institutional investors will help convince more CEOs to publicly acknowledge these simple truths and add more weight to the pro-immigrant side of the debate.
The other interesting piece of this story is the role of religious institutions. Many may recall that religious institutions and investors have been critical in advocating progressive political change--such as getting large corporations to divest from Apartheid South Africa. On immigration, faith leaders can play a similarly positive role.
Last year, a group of Christian Conservatives garnered attention for joining the CIR effort under the mantle of Conservatives for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. And progressive church leaders have been working on immigration for decades--from providing services on the front lines to participating in direct action and advocacy efforts.
But the novelty of this recent effort by over 60 institutional investors, the bulk of which are faith-based, is that it could portend increased collaboration on immigration policy between business and religious groups across the political spectrum.
Of course, none of this will undo the restrictionist rhetoric coming forth from groups like the Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR), NumbersUSA, and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). FAIR and others on this side of the debate have earned the title "hate group" from the Southern Poverty Law Center due to links to a eugenics foundation and nativists warning of a Latino invasion. These radical voices are not going anywhere. Nor will such a business-religion alliance prompt an about-face from powerful restrictionists in Congress.
But the involvement of faith-based investors in immigration augurs well for pro-immigrant advocates who need to do better at convincing the American public of the economic and moral case for a better legal entry system for new immigrants and a path to citizenship for undocumented people who are already here.
This is not to say that business alone will rally America toward a more humane, economically beneficial immigration policy. Pro-immigrant advocates and grassroots organizations--with the capacity for direct action and Beltway advocacy--will remain the drivers of any national movement. But, to win, they need business firmly on their side. If investor efforts to get more corporations and CEOs on board with initiatives like Mayor Bloomberg's partnership bear fruit, it will certainly represent a step in the right direction.
(Cross-posted on www.americasquarterly.org.)
Why is it that illegal immigrants are always the brightest and the best and American citizens are the dregs?
doublehappi 1:18pm March 9 wrote, "75 % of american companies have an american founder? and you are touting this?"
1) Why would you expect 100% of USA companies to have an American founder?
THAT is absurd.
2) Less than 75% of the USA is American born.
If 75% or more of new business starts are American founders, that is GREAT
IF only 25% of new business starts are by foreign born THAT IS WORSE than American born
4 types of LEGAL foreign nationals in the USA, NOT including illegal aliens
1) Foreign born that became a USA citizen
2) Foreign born that is in the USA as a LegalPermanentResident or GreenCard
3) Foreign born that is in the USA on one of 12-14 USA work visas or 35 other visas USA has
4) Foreign born that is in the USA on a visa waiver program (Usually, treaty with G7 nations)
US Census estimate for 2009 ( 2010 year is not available yet)
+ "38.5 million foreign born" in USA, [Will be even higher in 2010]
PDFpg2
http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/acsbr09-15.pdf
That 38.5 million, should include the above (1), (2), (3), and (4) categories
But it does not
Taking category number (3) alone
During ONLY the year 2009, USA admitted 36,231,554 VISA foreign national entrants.
Details are here at this link
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/yearbook/2009/nimsuptable2d.xls
Typically these Visiting visas are given for a 6 month period WITHOUT a work authorization - These Viasas keep the tourizm and travel industry alive and a lot of jobs for american citizens
In percentage terms, it is a question of how many USA biz starts are founded by foreign born
25%
In percentage terms, how many people in the USA at any given moment are foreign born
25% or more
Your pointing out that not every foreign born person that is in the USA is not in the USA to start a business or graduate from college is irrelevant.
Not every American born person is in the USA to start a business or graduate from college either.
An ancedote, you know anecdotal evidence, right?
From Christian Science Monitor
"But like Marissa, visa overstayers also tend to be more educated than other illegal immigrants. One reason: To get a tourist visa, a person has to show they have substantial ties to their home country - in the form of a job, school, or family. And most of these people already have enough money to fly into the country."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0205/p01s03-usju.html
"Visa overstayers likely represent between 25% and 40% of the unauthorized migrants."
PDFpg21
http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/61.pdf
Time to think,
38,500,000 foreign born in USA, an underestimate
- 36,231,554 are foreign born USA visa entrants in ONLY 2009
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2,268,446 is the difference
This 2.2 million must represent the GRAND TOTAL of numbers (1), (2), and (4) above
BUT IT DOES NOT
743,715 foreign nationals become USA citizens in only 2009
Page1
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/natz_fr_2009.pdf
1,130,818 foreign nationals become LegalPermanentResidents in only 2009
Page1
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/lpr_fr_2009.pdf
TOTAL 1,874,533 for only 2009
2009 + 2008 Total would be about 3,600,000, which means UScensus is off by millions
USCensus number means there was not one foreign born foreign national before 2008 that became either:
+ a Legal Permanent Resident or
+ a newly naturalized USA citizen that was foreign born. NOBODY.
Proof that prior to 2008 we did:
1) 660,477 foreign nationals became USA citizens in 2007
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/natz_fr_07.pdf
2) 1,052,415 foreign nationals became LPRs or GreenCards in 2007
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/LPR_FR_2007.pdf
If you need further proof?
The following is category number (4) above
"During 2009, there were 163 million foreign national admissions to the United States according to DHS work-load estimates."
[Pg 1]
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ni_fr_2009.pdf
More than 25% of the USA people are foreign born, the numbers from the US government support that
All of your calculations are OFF because of one small silly mistake you made - You clubbed non immigrant non work related visito visas with actual work visas, 28 million visas to be precise are giuven to visitors(per your DHS link) and they are not allowed to work.
Sorry, dont know how much time you spent on this (looks like quite a lot) But it is your calculation that is wayyyy off
I gave you proof that the number of foreign born in the USA is probably somewhere much closer to 76 million or 25% of the USA. Of all biz starts in USA, 25% are from foreign nationals.
Furthermore, more of your further mistakes...
Non-immigrant visas = foreign born entrants to the USA
Non-immigrant visas = E2 visas which permit foreign nationals to start or run a biz in USA
E2 visas can become a Legal Permanent Resident or GreenCard
LPR is not called an immigrant card...HELLO...
EVERY Non-immigrant visa in the USA has the ability through either an employer sponsor, or poltician sponsor, or family sponsor, or finacee' sponsor, etc. to get a LegalPermanentResidency green light. You do not understand the system. Even dual-intent is listed under non-immigrant visas, but they are called that because they permit independent qualifying of a Green Card, without a sponsor.
If you can call non-immigrant visa foreign nationals as people that do not count...
Then no not EVER call an illegal alien either
+ an undocumented immigrant or
+ illegal immigrant ever again.
"25%-40% of illegal aliens in the USA are visa overstayers"
Pg21
http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/61.pdf
JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT MEANS?
A visa overstayer?
What do you think that means?
The author above did not cite his source so that EVERYBODY knows if he is eliminating E2 visas and splitting foreign nationals in half. NO HE DID NOT. Go look...
And quite frankly, if he does not exclude E2 visas, he cannot exclude the other 36,231,554 foreign national entrants to the USA on visa.
The above article quote was this, "from 1995-2005, over 25 percent of American engineering and technology companies had at least one immigrant founder." He needs to cite his sources, otherwise a foreign national in the USA that is starting a biz, is likely going to require him or her to be here with a place to sleep at night. If you start a biz, and you sleep in the USA even one night, that is an immigrant.
I sourced E2 numbers earlier:
-----------------------------------------------
Taking category number (3) alone
During ONLY the year 2009, USA admitted 36,231,554 VISA foreign national entrants.
Details are here at this link
http://wwwÂ.dhs.gov/xÂlibrary/asÂsets/statiÂstics/yearÂbook/2009/ÂnimsuptablÂe2d.xls
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry, learn the USA immigration process. You do not know what you are talking about.
U.S. Taxpayers idea of immigration reform is ~ 11.2 million illegal foreign nationals becoming naturalized U.S. Citizens
Hint ~ previous 7 amnesties granting U.S. citizenship to 6.0 million illegal foreign nationals, without being vetted for criminal backgrounds, occurred each time when the U.S. Unemployment Rate was less than 4.5%, when 6.5 million, or less, American voters were out of work
Today's U.S. Unemployment Rate is 8.9%+ for the last 22 consecutive months = 14 million American voters are out of work trying to provide food, clothing, shelter & education to their 20+ million American children.
I'm open for discussion for an 8th amnesty to an additional 11.2 million illegal foreign nationals ~ when the U.S. Unemployment Rate returns to 4.5%, or lower.
These are the hard facts behind opposition to "immigration reform" and the why the U.S. Taxpaying voters are demanding "immigration enforcement" from their Federal & State Gov'ts
A wise man once said, "For every illegal alien with a job, there's an American without one."
t.
The fact is we already have laws, but they are not being ignored and/or corrupted by corporate influence. In immigration, in taxes, in labor, in all fields it's the same thing: corporations want to write the laws to increase their wealth and to crush American workers.
quote:
Of course, none of this will undo the restrictionist rhetoric coming forth from groups like the Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR), NumbersUSA, and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). FAIR and others on this side of the debate have earned the title "hate group" from the Southern Poverty Law Center due to links to a eugenics foundation and nativists warning of a Latino invasion. These radical voices are not going anywhere. Nor will such a business-religion alliance prompt an about-face from powerful restrictionists in Congress.
What will undo your duplicity speak regarding "open borders" and "amnesty-in-disguse" rhetoric?
Picosa posted, "Nor will such a business-rÂeligion alliance"
If religious institutions want a role in the USA government, let them pay the admission price like the rest of us, pay taxes.
Picosa posted, "Latino in vasion"
60% of illegal aliens in the USA are from Mexico
11% from Central America
7% from South America
4% from the Caribbean
See page 21 of report, 31 of pdf
http://pewÂhispanic.org/files/reports/107.pdf
82% of illegal aliens are from Latin America
However, Mexico is the biggest problem of the world by a landslide, making up 60% of that 82%
Canada is grouped in with Europe, EuropeCanaÂda makes up less than 6% of illegal aliens in the USA. Which is 1/10 the problem that Mexico creates.
Picosa- Do you feel the same way about Pew Hispanic?
Why did you skip them? It is because they are credible and you want to ignore the facts?
Picosa posted, "nativists"
1) This is our country, we make the rules
2) We our at record levels of LEGAL IMMIGRATION in the USA over the last 10 years
Illegal immigration negatively impacts Legal Permanent Residents, LPR's that have become USA citizens, and the USA born. Notice those 3 categories are NOT ALL NATIVES...
Anybody that would like proof that the USA is at record levels of LEGAL IMMIGRATION to the USA over the last decade, just ask me and I will give you the proof
Well then...
1) 75% OR MORE of American engineering and technology companies were started by at least one American
Google "had at least one" American founder
2) A ForeignNational F1 student needs to finish their degree, otherwise, why did they come here?
Why should an F1 be guranteed a job? An American graduate has no gurantee?
3) How did did F1 graduate with zero debt?
If they have an average level of student loan debt, how do they qualify for a business loan at a bank while unemployed?
Are they receiving special favoritism treatment?
4) If an F1 is in the USA, and they have zero debt and enough money in the bank to start a business.
They could qualify for an E2 visa
If they do not qualify for an E2 visa, then how do they qualify for a business loan at a bank while unemployed?
If they started the business while attending college, presumably the business has done well enough to qualify for an E2 visa. If the business did not do well, why should the F1 remain in the USA?
You wrote, "should be embracing talented young people, not showing them the door."
5) If they are in the USA as a LegalPermanentResident, we did not show them the door
6) If they are here on F1 visa, see the above
7) What if the foreign national was not young? Ignore them?
You wrote, "such as picking fruit, mostly done by immigrants"
8) 5.3%-7.1% of illegal aliens inUSA work within USA Agriculture
"about 1.2 million hired agricultural workers in our country today, estimates show between 600,000-800,000 are undocumented workers."
http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/speeches/sp_1202390869926.shtm
11.2 million illegal aliens inUSA today
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=133
Do the math.
Furthermore, 1.2 million jobs in Ag, PLEASE...
9) Companies should not rely on displacing Americans with "immigrants" to reduce wages and benefits
You wrote, "Bloomberg's Partnerships and other...embrace initiatives for immigrant integration"
10) When will they embrace initiatives integrating Americans?
Bloomberg you cited at least twice:
Greenspan and Mayor Bloomberg, in 2007, lobbying for open borders and replacement of Americans with foreign nationals
(Press play, move video slider forward to 1 hour 33 minutes 15 seconds, watch 3 minutes)
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/197084-1
No one is guaranteeing an F1 a Job, People are saying if you dont let F1 people look for Jobs in a fair way then you will not get new students to enroll in the F1 program. and they are supposed to be best and the brightest(the international students who mostly come for research)
I left you a reply. Page up, first comments above.
You wrote, "No one is guaranteeiÂng an F1 a Job, People are saying if you dont let F1 people look for Jobs in a fair way then you will not get new students to enroll in the F1 program.
1) You just said that an F1 visa MUST permit "people look for Jobs in a fair way."
They can look for jobs any place on earth.
Some do get jobs in the USA.
Some get jobs for the Fortune 500 abroad.
Some get jobs for companies abroad that are not Fortune 500 but Forbes 500 or Global 500.
The fact is that
You wrote, "and they are supposed to be best and the brightest(Âthe internatioÂnal students who mostly come for research)"
I left you a reply regarding your 1st sentence. Page up, first comments above.
You wrote, "No one is guaranteeiÂÂng an F1 a Job, People are saying if you dont let F1 people look for Jobs in a fair way ..."
1) You just said that an F1 visa MUST permit "people look for Jobs in a fair way."
They can look for jobs any place on earth.
Some do get jobs in the USA.
Some get jobs for the Fortune 500 abroad.
Some get jobs for companies abroad that are not Fortune 500 but Forbes 500 or Global 500.
Some go back to their home countries, and work in the family business
Some go back to their home countries to teach their own troubled country how to improve
The fact is, that the current message machine out there wants there to be a flood of F1 visas in the USA that take jobs in the USA after graduation. They want this for the following reasons:
(1) Flood the labor market in the USA
Read this
http://www.itworld.com/career/67290/greenspan-h-1b-cap-would-make-us-workers-privileged-elite
Read this
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/72848/H_1B_Is_Just_Another_Gov_t._Subsidy
Even though the labor market participation rate in the USA has gone down for 10 years
http://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=LNS11300000&years_option=specific_years&include_graphs=true&to_year=2010&from_year=1948
Why has the labor participation rate gone down in the last 10 years?
No jobs?
Low paying jobs?
Americans being displaced by foreign nationals?
This link shows that 25% of the most populated states in the USA are UNDER EMPLOYED
http://www.gallup.com/poll/146486/Underemployment-Lowest-North-Dakota-Wyoming.aspx
Here is a labor economist take on it. A must read for anyone complaininÂg about a shortage of smart people in the US.
Fall 2003 - Michael S. Teitelbaum is a Senior Advisor to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, where he advises the Foundation on the management of its Professional Science Master's program.
http://207.57.17.137/programs/documents/PublicInterestTeitelbaum2003.pdf
"Workers asked to train foreign replacements
Posted 4/6/2004 12:25 AM Updated 4/6/2004 3:12 AM
By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY
When computer programmer Stephen Gentry learned last year that Boeing was laying him off and shipping his job overseas, he wasn't too surprised. Many of his friends had suffered the same experience.
What really stunned him was his last assignment: Managers had him train the worker from India who'd be taking his job.
"It was very callous," says Gentry, 51, of Auburn, Wash., a father of three who is still unemployed. "They asked us to make them feel at home while we trained them to take our jobs."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2004-04-06-replace_x.htm
PHILADELPHIA -- Many Americans believe that immigrants take jobs from native-born U.S. citizens. These people might be surprised to know that immigrant entrepreneurs frequently start companies which actually create jobs for native and foreign-born workers.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=7bef92994f1dfc9bf79adee51557b477
How Immigrants Create More Jobs
Over all, it turns out that the continuing arrival of immigrants to American shores is encouraging business activity here, thereby producing more jobs, according to a new study. Its authors argue that the easier it is to find cheap immigrant labor at home, the less likely that production will relocate offshore.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/business/economy/31view.html
2) Illegal aliens ≠legal immigrants
3) 75 percent of American engineering and technology companies were American founders
4) E2 visa can be used by any foreign national that has evidence that they want or can sustain running a business in the USA. It eventually permits getting a green card
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-2_visa
http://www.workpermit.com/news/2006_06_16/us/e2_business_visa.htm
E2 combined with 1099 Independent Contractor status should not be permitted. 1099 Independent Contractor in the USA is classified as someone that is an entrepreneur or running their own business, when in reality they are just a pseudoW2 worker that is not getting benefits and displacing Americans. This can be used to usurp the H1B, and must be stopped.
Maybe we should just take the same approach with college professors or police and firefighters that we take with farmworkers and tech workers. We could establish an arbitrarily low pay scale, then scour the world for legal or wink wink illegal workers to do the jobs for that pay. And, like the posters all over this say, it would expand economic activity.
No, we should put in place a rational immigration system and enforce it relentlessly.
The E1 or E2 visas you mention here are for wealthy entrepreneurs, not someone like the Dream kids who are collage educated with high skilled degrees and instead of given a chance to become business owners who create jobs they are deported.
quote: If you were looking to obtain permanent residence (a green card) directly through E-1 visa investment, you would generally need to invest one million dollars or more. This is substantially greater than the requirement for E-2 visas. While there is no set amount of investment, a good rule of thumb is about $125,000.
http://www.usimmigrationteam.com/E-2-Visa-Investor-Visa-E-1-Visa.htm
If we grant anmnesty for the millions of low skilled illegal aliens we have allowed to take over large swaths of the West, we will never have a functioning immigration system again. It will always be easier, faster, cheaper to come in illegally than to get into any kind of line.
Most importantly, illegal aliens can now be found in most occupations due to our virtually non-existent enforcement of our laws against hiring illegal immigrants. I'll lay you odds that at Amherst, at least some of your tree trimmers, construction, maintenance, etc. workers are illegal. In much of the rest of the country, if there is a low value added industry, it has illegal immigrants as its workforce: landscaping, meat processing, construction, maintenance. They aren't just in agriculture. They are displacing legal American workers all over this economy, country wide!