State and Local Initiatives
They say all politics is local, right? While most of the debate about immigration focuses on congressional action (or inaction), local communities across the country are the ones who feel the value of immigration most tangibly. Now active in more than 50 communities – more than 80 percent of which are in conservative states – the NAE State & Local team works with policymakers, business, and civic leaders to promote policies and programs that help create jobs and drive economic growth. You can explore more of our work on the state and local level here.
City of Bowling Green, KY Launches First-Ever Welcoming Plan for New Americans
Bowling Green, KY — Today, the City of Bowling Green in Warren County, KY publicly unveiled “Building Community and Growing our Economy: A Welcoming Plan for New Americans,” a comprehensive set of recommendations to engage and integrate New Americans into the local community and workforce. The Welcoming… Read More
Ahead of SCOTUS Arguments More Than 50 Chambers of Commerce Call on Congress to Protect DREAMers
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Leader McCarthy, and Leader Schumer: As business leaders representing the most important industries in our nation, we are committed to promoting economic growth and job creation for all Americans. From manufacturing to agriculture, and from Main Street to Fortune 500 companies,… Read More
New Data Shows Cedar Rapids’ Immigrants Accounted for Nearly Half of the County’s Total Population Growth
A new report finds that immigrants accounted for 47.1 percent of total population growth in Cedar Rapids between 2012 and 2017, according to new research from New American Economy (NAE). Read More
Lebanese immigrant ensures newcomers have opportunities in Cedar Rapids, IA
When Salma Igram arrived in the United States, she was 18 years old and had never seen a calculator or a hamburger, “let alone a hot dog,” she says. But there she was in her husband’s fast-food restaurant, Jimbo’s, working the griddle and mastering the cash register. “My husband… Read More
Immigrant credits English language and training opportunities as critical to his success
Tony Golobic jokes that he got his first job in America —cleaning oil-fired boilers —because no one else wanted to do it. “The boilers were red hot, the work was dangerous and dirty,” he says. “But I was making really good money, a lot more money than I ever… Read More
Immigrant Entrepreneur Opens Doors for Innovation and Design in Wayne County
At times during the First Liberian Civil War, young Andreas Browne got on his knees and prayed for the opportunity to live. Now he calls his time in America his “second life.” Browne grew up in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, on Africa’s western coast. His mother… Read More
Immigrant Engineer Driven By a Call to Serve His Country and Community
Kamal AlSawafy was 9 years old when he arrived in Dearborn in 1997. Three years earlier, his family had fled Iraq, where his father, a construction worker, risked imprisonment and torture for his failure to support then-President Saddam Hussein. Now they had been granted refugee status and joined family… Read More
From Alexandria, Egypt to Charlotte, NC: An Immigrant’s Support for Other International Students Pays Off
Tarek Elshayeb is from Alexandria, Egypt, and came to the United States to attend graduate school at Clemson University in South Carolina. “I was looking for a better education, better work opportunities, a better life in general,” he says. While studying for his master’s degree in human resources, he obtained… Read More
New Report Shows Immigrants in Lowell Accounted for Nearly 90 Percent of Recent Population Growth
Lowell, MA – Immigrant households earned nearly $1.5 billion and contributed $402 million in taxes in 2017, according to new research by New American Economy (NAE) in partnership with the Lowell Refugee and Immigrant Support and Engagement (RISE) Coalition and the Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce. The report also… Read More
Kenyan Architect Starts Over in Lowell and Finds a Way to Repay the Favor
Anthony Nganga came to the United States in 2004 to join his wife, who had moved to America to earn a master’s degree and was living in Lowell. In Kenya, Nganga had worked as an architect. Now, because foreign professional licenses typically are not recognized in the United States, he… Read More
America's story is an immigrant story.
