Business and the Workforce
Immigrants not only bring diverse skills and perspectives to the U.S. workforce, they often fill employment gaps in crucial fields. We advocate for expanded work visas and related programs so our labor force can continue to benefit from immigrant workers and remain competitive in the global economy
Immigrant Talent Critical To U.S. Dominance, Says Economist
Peter Orazem is an economist and professor at Iowa State University, where he’s taught for 34 years. Orazem’s career has given him insight into how much the United States relies on both high- and low-skilled immigrants to move our economy forward. “We have a country that’s capital rich and labor… Read More
Troy Professor: Make It Easier For High-Skilled Workers And Entrepreneurs to Immigrate
Maryam Stevenson has dedicated her professional career to studying how high-skilled immigrants help the American economy. As an immigration attorney in Memphis in the mid-aughts, she specialized in skilled worker visas for the healthcare industry. Today, as an assistant professor of political science at Troy University in Troy, Alabama, she… Read More
A Meatpacker’s Son Now Helps Other Nebraska Youth Succeed
Growing up in Lexington, Nebraska, in the 1990s, Luis Sotelo witnessed a cultural transition when Latin American workers arrived to fill a demand for labor in a new meatpacking plant. “And today we are seeing a new wave of immigrants in Lexington,” says Sotelo, who serves as chief diversity officer… Read More
Trump’s Latest Executive Order Targets High-Skilled Immigrants
On April 18, President Trump signed the presidential executive order on Buy American and Hire American. Similar to the other immigration-related executive orders, this one has no immediate effect. The executive order does not change the existing requirements for any visa category or the processes for approving a petition… Read More
Rather Than Innovate in U.S., Foreign Students Now Consider Leaving
Like many international students, Qiao Zhang had hoped to stay in the United States after receiving his master’s degree in quantitative finance from Rutgers Business School. Now, with the future of immigration policy so uncertain, he may go back to China. It’s something a lot of his fellow international students… Read More
A Mexican Doll Shows Kids ‘our Differences are our Strength’
In 2014, Leslie Guzman was trying to think of a way to remind her children of their Mexican heritage. As it turned out, one of her neighbors in Cincinnati had created Mensch on a Bench, a toy that teaches children about Jewish culture. Inspiration struck. She decided to create a… Read More
Trump Administration to Announce H-1B Visa Changes
Several media outlets have reported that on Tuesday, April 18, President Trump will sign an executive order mandating that the immigration agencies undertake a review of the H-1B visas classification and suggesting that they must take steps to overhaul the process for allocating the limited number available… Read More
Garage Owner Shows How Hard Immigrants Work
Oswaldo “Boler” Castellanos, a Guatemalan immigrant, is pleased with the opportunities that have come his way. But he knows that many others who want an opportunity to create a new life are denied that chance. “I want to show that we are coming here to work hard,” he says. Castellanos… Read More
A Career Economist Makes the Case for Immigrants
Economist Ann Markusen has spent three decades studying what makes the U.S. economy tick. And a recent teaching post in Canada re-affirmed her view that a welcome approach to immigrants is good for a nation’s bottom line. “Canada’s liberal immigration policies and the nonprofit sector’s efforts to find housing… Read More
Local Celebrity Chef Dan Wu Talks Immigrant Entrepreneurship
“When we think about other people’s cultures, the first entry point we have – before music, before dance, before literature, before language – is food,” says Dan Wu, a private chef, MasterChef contestant, and Chinese immigrant who lives in Lexington. “What do you know about Thailand? You know pad thai. Read More
America's story is an immigrant story.
