Stories
“American Food is Immigrant Food,” Says the Owner of Food Services Business Incubator
Caleb Zigas has worked in restaurants for most of his life, from dishwasher to pastry chef to waiter, and was always struck by the fact that many talented line cooks were immigrants who had limited opportunities to be restaurant owners. “They didn’t have the same access to capital and wealth,”… Read More
CEO of $40 Million Company Says Keeping Undocumented Immigrants in the Shadows Wastes Talent and Stalls Business Growth
Thirteen years ago, Colombian-born entrepreneur Claudia Mirza and her husband, Azam, a native of India, co-founded Akorbi, a language-translation business based in Plano, Texas. Today, Akorbi has grown into a global business-solutions firm, providing localization services and multilingual staffing and marketing to companies such as Google, Aetna, and Blue Cross… Read More
After Surviving Brutal Kidnapping, Colombian Immigrant Becomes Successful Miami Entrepreneur
Cristhian Mancera loved his native Colombia and had planned to stay there forever. But when he was kidnapped at age 28, he lost faith in his country. “I was held for 10 hours and thought I was going to die. I was hit in the head multiple times,” he… Read More
Mexican Immigrant Creates Jobs and Opportunity for American Workers in Greenville
When Mexican native Ruben Montalvo first came to the United States at age 24, he was so sure his visit was temporary that he kept an open return ticket home. As valedictorian from his university, where he had received an engineering degree, he’d been reluctant to leave his cushy… Read More
‘Polish Cowboy’ and Entrepreneur Says Immigration Policy Stifles Economic Growth
“I’ve always dreamed of moving to the United States and building my company here,” says Damian Nowak, the Polish co-founder and CEO of Virtkick, a startup that helps businesses set up their own cloud-hosting networks. This dream became a reality when Virtkick became one of 10 companies selected—of 1,100 that… Read More
Taiwanese Immigrant Brings Asian Festival and Scores of Steady Jobs to Rocky Mountain Region
The morning of the very first Colorado Dragon Boat Festival in 2001, Ding-Wen Hsu was worried no one would show. Hsu had accomplished a lot since immigrating to the United States from Taiwan, including founding a successful company that makes roughly $10 million annually and employs 75 people. Read More
This Entrepreneur says Diversity Provides America with a Unique Economic Advantage
The American melting pot sets this country apart from almost every other nation, says Jie “Jay” Zheng, a Chinese-American chemist and restaurant owner in Denver. “That is something that’s unique to us that China and other countries cannot do,” Zheng says. But, he adds, to make the most of our… Read More
When Undocumented Immigrants Are Targeted, American Consumers Lose, Says Chamber Executive
Francisco Treviño, President and CEO of the Greater Tulsa Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, remembers what happened in 2007 when the Oklahoma state legislature passed one of the country’s most punitive immigration laws. Called the Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act, the law went so far as to target U.S. citizens,… Read More
Child of Mexican Restaurant Owners Helps Build Houston’s Next Generation of Business Leaders
In 2007, when Laura Murillo became president and CEO of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the organization had just two employees and was in financial peril, about to lose its lease. Under her guidance, it is now the largest Hispanic chamber of commerce in the country, with 4,200 members,… Read More
Texas Immigration Attorney Sees Firsthand How Immigration Policy Stifles North Texas Economy
Ann Massey Badmus has spent over 22 years working in immigration law. Her greatest takeaway from over two decades of experience? The national conversation surrounding immigration does not represent what she sees every single day. “We keep hearing more and more rhetoric that immigration is bad,” Badmus says. “Why are… Read More
Make a contribution
Make a direct impact on the lives of immigrants.
