Upwardly Global’s President and CEO, Jina Krause-Vilmar, recently joined a panel at SXSW EDU to discuss the critical economic contributions of immigrants to the U.S. economy, workforce and its communities. The session, “Making the Economic Case for Workforce Access for Immigrants,” brought together leaders working at the intersection of immigration, workforce development, and economic mobility.
Krause-Vilmar was joined by:
-
- Ramona Schindelheim of WorkingNation
- Katie Brown of EnGen
- Arturo Cazares of Latino Business Action Network
The Data is Clear
The panel highlighted statistics that make a clear case for immigrants’ significant impact on the United States:
-
- Immigrants represent 14% of the population but make up 20% of workers.
- They contribute nearly $1.7 trillion to the economy and over $579 billion in taxes.
- 83% of growth in the working-age population today comes from immigrants and their children.
They also emphasized the demographic reality driving immigration’s importance today:
-
- The U.S. has an aging population, with an average of 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day.
- Without immigration, the population will be one-third of its current size by the year 2100.
- The U.S. has experienced 43 consecutive months of labor shortages with 4% unemployment.
- By 2035, 100% of U.S. population growth will come from immigrants and their children.
Beyond Numbers: The Systemic Challenges We Need To Address
“The reality is that there are some jobs and occupations that you need to be credentialed in or are highly regulated by the government — for example, doctors, nurses,” Krause-Vilmar explained. “But then there are jobs and occupations that are not, like in IT/technology, business, logistics, and operations.”
The panel identified several key challenges immigrants face in accessing quality employment:
-
Career Navigation Barriers:
Many workforce and community college systems are set up to help newcomers obtain their first entry-level job, but these organizations are not necessarily equipped to help immigrants answer the questions: What jobs do I qualify for? Am I competitive? Do I need to relicense? Do I need to re-credential? And if so, how?
-
Employer Recognition:
Many U.S. employers don’t understand the value of this talent and the advantages of the resilience and the diversity of thought, experiences, and perspectives newcomers bring to the workplace. Some companies do not have the ability to adequately recognize internationally acquired credentials and understand unfamiliar job titles with no direct U.S. equivalent.
-
Cultural Difference in Self-Promotion:
Krause-Vilmar shares, “”There is a certain way to show up to be marketable in the United States and it is very specific. And if you come from a culture that is much more community-oriented, not ‘I, me, I, me,’ you are not going to be able to market yourself.”
“We … need to stop putting artificial barriers for people. We need to make resources available to people so they can figure out what job they can do with the skills that they have. We don’t have to make them wait a generation,” says Katie Brown.
Immigration Drives Innovation and Business Growth
The panel showcased research demonstrating immigrants’ outsized contributions to business creation and innovation.
“In our recent research — and we surveyed thousands and thousands of business owners across the U.S. over several years — in the more recent years, the number of Latino-owned companies in this country grew by 44%,” shared Arturo Cazares. “At the same time, the number of white-owned companies in the country decreased by 3%.”
He continues, “Latino businesses are growing faster than the average across the board. They’re producing jobs at twice the rate, and those jobs offer better benefits across the board on average.”
Krause-Vilmar also highlighted that 50% of Fortune 500 companies were founded or cofounded by an immigrant, and 23% of patents come from immigrants who represent only 14% of the population, which she attributes to the level of comfort with risk that many immigrants — particularly displaced persons — possess.
Artificial Intelligence and Skills for the Future of Work
Krause-Vilmar made a powerful connection between immigrant talent and the evolving workplace transformation formed by AI:
“If AI is changing how we view skills, and we are no longer looking at a world of work where you have a specific skill and you do a specific task, you get a reliable outcome. What we’re looking at now is how do we invest in people if AI is taking over… Now we’re looking at how we’re cultivating skills around curiosity, creativity, resilience, adaptability. And these are things immigrants and refugees bring in spades.”
Moving Forward Together
Krause-Vilmar emphasized the importance of cultivating an ecosystem to protect the nonprofit community and the communities they serve: “Let’s not reinvent the wheel. Let’s create economies of scale. You do what you do best. We’ll do what we do best, and we’ll join powers.”
She also called for systems-level solutions: “I would encourage us to think of systems-change solutions. I would encourage us to think creatively with the spaces that we have by investing more deeply in partnerships. … We need organizations that actually work directly with communities so that they have the proximity, insight, and trust of those communities — that they can actually represent through human-centered design, solutions that will actually work.”
Listen to the full session on SXSW EDU.
###
About Upwardly Global
Upwardly Global is the premier organization helping work-authorized immigrants, refugees, and asylees with international credentials navigate systemic barriers to restart their careers in the United States. Learn more about our work at upwardlyglobal.org.