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The Partnership in the Papers
Tue, 11/01/2011 - 10:55 — adminThe following are just a few of the many recent Op-Eds written by members and supporters of the Partnership for a New American Economy.
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Embrace Hispanics' Role in Strengthening Our Economy
The Tennessean | October 11, 2012
By Yuri Cunza, president and CEO of the Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
"With large shortages in key fields such as science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and with baby boomers set to retire in droves over the next several years, we’ll need more talented young people to keep the U.S. workforce vibrant and productive. Immigration is a budget-neutral way to meet both these needs."
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Let immigrants spark growth
Daily News | August 29, 2012
By Sebastian Delmont, Co-founder of StreetEasy.com
"Entrepreneurs and inventors create jobs — it’s that simple. Our immigration laws should be that simple, too. The economic history of this country is intertwined with (if not built on) the perseverance, audacity and ingenuity of immigrants."
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Talented Immigrants and America's Skilled-Worker Shortage
The Washington Examiner | July 14, 2012
By Russell Sarder, chairman and CEO of NetCom Learning
"Immigrants have created new ideas, new businesses, new skills and new markets since our nation's founding. Considering that more than 40 percent of American Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants, the turning away of brilliant foreign-born students and entrepreneurs could potentially cost us new patents and innovations, and the businesses and jobs associated with them."
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We're Turning Away Entrepreneurs. Fix Our Immigration Policy
Pioneer Press | June 13, 2012
By Douglas M. Baker Jr., chairman and CEO of Ecolab
"Our country was built by the energy and determination of immigrants who came here to create a better life for themselves and for their families. Immigration is what built this country and it is what will propel us forward if we let it. Today's immigrants continue to demonstrate that they, too, have the ideas, energy and drive to succeed, at both the lower rungs and the highly skilled segments of our economy. Now is not the time to turn inward and close the doors to those who want to live and work here."
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Immigrants Vital to Workforce at all Levels
The Tennessean | April 29, 2012
By Yuri Cunza, president and CEO of the Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
"It is time to have an open and honest debate about the role that immigrants play in our country. Let’s look at the role immigrants play in founding companies and inventing new products. Let’s look at the role they play in filling jobs at the low- and high-skilled end of the economy that we Americans are unwilling and unable to fill. And let’s look at real ways to fix our broken immigration system."
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America has Room for More Skilled Immigrants
The Washington Examiner | April 2, 2012
By Cris Conde, former CEO of SunGard Data Systems
"There are senseless barriers standing in the way of today's immigrants, making it harder for tomorrow's great American companies to be founded, harder for tomorrow's great American brands to be created, harder for tomorrow's great American products to be invented, and harder for tomorrow's key industries to attract to the talent they need to compete and grow in the global marketplace."
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Perception of Hispanic Immigrants Stalls at the Stereotype
The Mercury News | March 24, 2012
By Reynaldo Gil, Founder and CEO at ReyLabs in San Jose, CA
"Nobody talks about Hispanic business owners creating American jobs during our recession. Nobody talks about the small but growing class of Hispanic technology leaders driving our innovation economy. And nobody talks about the fact that even on the hot-button issue of immigration, other Hispanics and I believe what most Americans believe: We need to recruit skilled workers to keep our economy growing and to create more American jobs."
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Retaining Talent From Abroad
The News & Observer | March 3, 2012
By Harvey A. Schmitt, CEO and president of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce
"Facing a broken debate about immigration, if we want progress we need to start talking about immigration as an economic issue with real job-creating possibilities. If we wait to fix this problem, we will continue to lose these potential investments in our nation's economic future."
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Immigration Debate is About Economics, Not Politics
Detroit Free Press | February 27, 2012
By Partnership Co-Chair Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder
"What do Jeremy Lin of the Knicks and Nicklas Lidstrom of the Red Wings have in common? Both owe their success to immigration – and both are creating jobs and strengthening our economy. Lin, whose parents came from Taiwan, and Lidstrom, who was born in Sweden, are helping their teams sell tickets and merchandise, while also helping tavern owners sell burgers and beers. But they are also helping the NBA and NHL to expand in overseas markets – something every major corporation in America is trying to do."
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Immigration Reform a Key Step to Creating Jobs in U.S.
El Paso Times | February 26, 2012
By Bill Hammond, President and CEO of the Texas Association of Business
"Immigration reform serves as a budget-neutral way to create additional jobs at a time when there are few if any budget-neutral ways to create jobs; each foreign graduate with an advanced degree from a U.S. university who stays and works in a STEM field creates on average 2.62 American jobs (according to a recent joint study by American Enterprise Institute & Partnership for a New American Economy."
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Immigration Reform Would Help Spur Economic Growth
The Detroit News | February 3, 2012
By Pete Karmanos, Executive Chairman of Compuware and majority owner of the Carolina Hurricanes NHL franchise
"Sports fans understand that the best talent makes the team. When we sign a player for my Carolina Hurricanes, no one worries if he is Canadian, Czech or Finn — because our fans know the goal is to win more games. The same holds true for computer scientists and programmers at Compuware: Foreign workers don't take jobs, they help us win business that leads to more jobs."
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Entrepreneurial Immigrants Could Mean Creation of More Jobs for U.S. Citizens
San Diego Union-Tribune | January 26, 2012
By Sharon R. Mehlman, partner with Larrabee, Mehlman, Albi & Coker LLP, San Diego; Sandra M. Wagner, principal with Law Offices of Sandra M. Wagner, San Diego; Kathleen Grzegorek, certified specialist in immigration & nationality law and partner with Stone & Grzegorek LLP, Los Angeles
"As immigration attorneys, we experience daily the ways our outmoded immigration laws frustrate job creation. We see how tens of thousands of the top scientists, engineers, programmers and other key specialists whom we train in our universities are sent abroad to compete against us because we are unable to issue them a green card. We see how entrepreneurs who want to come to America to start businesses and create U.S. jobs go to Canada, Chile or Singapore instead because there is no entrepreneur visa in America."
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To Spur the Economy, U.S. Must Reform Legal Immigration
U.S. News & World Report | January 13, 2012
By Rich Beyer, Chairman and CEO of Freescale Semiconductor and Chairman of the Semiconductor Industry Association
"The immigration debate in America tends to focus on such aspects as illegal entry and border security; however, reforming the process for legal immigration is of vital importance to the country's economy. America is a nation of immigrants, and our remarkable economic success throughout history has much to do with the ideas brought to this country by those immigrants."
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Immigration reform = growth
Philadelphia Inquirer | October 23, 2011
By Charles Allison, Jr., CEO of CWBiofuels
"The world is constantly innovating, adapting, and improving, and the United States must not fall behind. The renewable-energy industry is an excellent example of the international competitiveness taking place. America has a stake in this industry, but to compete and create jobs, we must hire the best talent. U.S. immigration regulations, however, too often prevent that."
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The Immigration Solution for Job Growth
The Wall Street Journal | October 19, 2011
By Leonard Lauder, Chairman Emeritus of the Estée Lauder Companies
"There is no doubt that immigrant entrepreneurs and their children have fueled our economy. My mother is a prime example. Josephine Esther Mentzer was a daughter of Hungarian and Czech immigrants. Estée, as she was called by her family, was always interested in beauty and cosmetics and started selling skin care products to beauty salons more than 65 years ago."
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Immigrants’ economic impact
Worcester Telegram | October 12, 2011
By Joseph C. O’Brien, Mayor of Worcester & Kevin O’Sullivan, President & CEO of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives
"Our most crucial concern as a nation has to be unemployment and putting Americans back to work. For every temporary high skilled visa a technology company issues, an estimated five new jobs are created. Historically, immigrants are twice as likely to start a business. Immigrants often fill the gaps in our workforce that allow our current businesses to grow and create jobs."
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To create jobs, change immigration laws
El Paso Inc. | October 3, 2011
By Jeremy Robbins
"But this is not to say there isn't an immigration "problem." There is. It's just not what politicians are speaking about. The problem is not that there are too many people coming here illegally. It's that there are too few coming here legally."
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How to Create American Jobs
The Huffington Post | October 3, 2011
By Zvi Or-Bach, President & CEO at MonolithIC 3D™ Inc.
"I don't just believe that immigrants can drive American job growth. I have lived it.
I first came to work in the United States on an H-1 Visa in 1981 and, after only two short years, I had caught the "start-up bug."
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Immigrant Impact
The Salt Lake Tribune | July 15, 2011
By Jonathan Johnson,President of Salt Lake City-based O.co (aka Overstock.com)
"The job creators of tomorrow do not have to come here. If we do not provide a legal means for them to come, they won’t. Our immigration laws as currently enforced make it too easy to come (and stay) here illegally, but erect arbitrary and costly barriers to foreign talent who want to enter legally and participate in the American dream."
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Reform for Workforce Diversity
The The Tennessean | June 21, 2011
By Ralph Schulz, President and CEO of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce
"We need to stop turning away the entrepreneurs who have venture capital funding, and maybe the next big idea, from entering our country and starting a business. We need to make it easier for companies to employ the workers they need to grow. We need to remove the arbitrary caps, set 20 years ago, on the number of highly skilled workers who can work temporarily in the U.S."
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Maine Voices: Immigration policy needs to acknowledge value of foreign-born workers
The Portland Press Herald | May 14, 2011
By Laurent F. Gilbert Sr., Mayor of Lewiston, ME.
David Barber, Barber Foods
"It is the responsibility of those in business and government to make it easier for talented, hard-working immigrants who can help jump-start the economy to come here. In Lewiston, we have worked with our immigrant community to provide access to the capital that they need to begin businesses and to do so in a way that meets the requirements of their culture and religion."
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Taking the compact to Washington
Deseret News | May 5, 2011
By Paul Mero,President of the Sutherland Institute
"It is time to take Utah's message national. The federal government is stuck in political gridlock as our immigration problems grow into an immigration catastrophe. We throw billions upon billions of dollars at the border but lack any coherent immigration strategy. We create visas for businesses to get the employees they need but then erect senseless bureaucratic and legal obstacles that render these visas inadequate or even useless. As a result, we have built an economy that is often dependent upon a steady flow of undocumented immigrants."
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A New Immigration Consensus
The Wall Street Journal | May 2, 2011
By Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City
"Our global competitors understand how crucial immigrants are to economic growth. They roll out the red carpet for entrepreneurs; we have no entrepreneur visa. They heavily recruit our advanced-degree students; we educate them and send them home. They woo the engineers, scientists and other skilled professionals who invent new products, launch product lines, and develop the technology of tomorrow; we erect arbitrary, senseless and bureaucratic barriers to recruitment. And we do all this even as our unemployment rate hovers around 9%."
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Only Washington can fix broken immigration system
The Salt Lake Tribune | March 26, 2011
By Lane Beattie, Salt Lake Chamber President & Mark Shurtleff, Utah Attorney General
"The labor market is not a zero sum game, and the notion that immigrants are taking American jobs is a myth that bears no relation to the realities of the labor market. Studies estimate every temporary high-skilled immigrant worker creates five additional jobs, because these workers tend to work in growth areas like research and development."