Stories
Former Dean of Yale Law School Says to Reject Immigrants is to Reject ‘Exactly the Thing That Makes Americans Unique’
Harold Hongju Koh knows exactly how much the children of immigrants are capable of achieving in a short period of time. “Through educational opportunities, [they] have extraordinary upward mobility in one generation,” says Koh. “My own family is proof of that.” His parents, who met after coming to the United States… Read More
Real Estate Tycoon, Philanthropist, Immigrant: America Would Be Crazy to Refuse People Like Him
The night before Sunil Puri’s father passed away, at the age of 94, he called his son to say goodbye. Speaking by phone from Mumbai, India, the retired yarn-trader offered a few final words of advice to his son, a multimillionaire property developer and business owner. Puri’s father urged him to embrace the United States and… Read More
This Immigrant Researcher is Changing the Future of Cancer Treatment, But Immigration Slowed his Progress
Radiology researcher Anthony Chang came to the United States from Taiwan in the 1990s to study at Vanderbilt and Yale, earned a PhD in experimental physics from the University of Texas, and was hired to direct the imaging laboratory at the Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids, where he researched… Read More
He Won the Lottery: One Congolese Man’s Incredible Diversity Visa Story
Bozi Kiekie grew up in a poor farming community in the war-torn Democratic Republic of The Congo, helping his family work the land while also selling bread, gasoline, and fish in order to scrape together enough money to pay for his studies. “I struggled, as everyone in the country did,”… Read More
International Students Top One Million, Contributing $32.8 Billion to U.S. Economy
For the first time, the number of international students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities exceeded one million, making up over 5 percent of the 20 million students pursuing higher education in the United States during the 2015-2016 academic year. These 1,043,839 international students represent a 7.1-percent increase from the… Read More
When the Local Steel Mill Closed, This Mexican Immigrant Started a Business and Hired Americans
When Racine Steel Castings laid off its workers in the 1990s, welder Lauro Davalos found himself better prepared than many. Long determined to give his children something he’d never had — a good education — Davalos had already started a business in downtown Racine, the Southeast Wisconsin town… Read More
This Venerated Engineer Says Embracing Skilled Immigrants Will Make America Great
Ram Bhatia was living in Montreal when a U.S. headhunter called him, saying, “We can’t find anyone in the United States.” The headhunter had spent a year looking for an engineer who could help a Wisconsin firm develop linear electrical motors. Bhatia, who is originally from India, had done graduate… Read More
College Dean Worries that Not Enough U.S. Students Pursuing STEM
As a child, Manoj Babu used to say he lived in two different worlds. There was America, where he attended school and had friends in Southeast Texas. And there was India, the culture that saturated life behind the doors of his house. His mother, a nurse, had come… Read More
A Look at Successful Restaurant Owner Who ‘Came Here with Nothing’
Lauro Davalos was 17 and alone when he crossed the border from Mexico. He’d graduated from the first grade only, then had to work. The United States, he’d gleefully tell people on the family farm, offered better, and he was going. After a circuitous route through… Read More
Without Immigration Reform, This Dean Worries Manufacturers Won’t have the Technical Workers they Need
As Indian immigrants growing up in East Texas, Manoj Babu and his sister were encouraged to pursue careers in science and math. Forget sports or music. They attended STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) competitions. In fact, Babu jokes that he may have actually disappointed his father by becoming… Read More
Make a contribution
Make a direct impact on the lives of immigrants.
