Jina Krause-Vilmar, Upwardly Global’s President and CEO, recently featured on WORT 89.9FM’s “8 O’Clock Buzz” podcast. In the episode “New Report: Immigrants Play a Key Role in Economic Prosperity of Great Lakes Region,” she discusses the economic impact of legal immigrants in the Great Lakes region and the barriers they face in finding skill-aligned employment, such as the complexities of recredentialing; obtaining business-level, industry-specific English language skills; and the lack of social networks.
She also touches on how this year’s election outcomes could influence both immigrant and refugee communities, as well as their broader implications for the U.S. labor market and regional economic development.
Swing states near the Great Lakes, such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin helped ensure an electoral college victory for Republican President-elect Donald Trump in last Tuesday’s elections. In exit polls, Rust Belt voters frequently cited “the economy” and “immigration” as the two most important issues motivating them to cast ballots.
Those issues are inextricably linked, but perhaps not in the way Trump and his followers have claimed. As it turns out, immigrants don’t steal American jobs, they create them.
A new report from the American Immigration Council and immigrant and refugee professional services organization Upwardly Global spotlights the impact immigrants have had in the urban and regional revival of the Great Lakes states. The new report is called Building Community and Fueling Growth: The Role of Immigrants in Reviving the Great Lakes Region.
Listen to the full podcast below or on WORT 89.9FM.