Center for Immigration Studies
Ethiopian Refugee and Business Owner Is Grateful for Welcoming Idahoans
Kibrom Milash and wife, Tirhas. In April 2015, Kibrom Milash opened Kibrom, one of Boise, Idaho’s few Ethiopian restaurants. It was part of the Boise International Market, a place where customers could buy food and products from countries around the world. A fire gutted the market the following September, but… Read More
With Four Languages to Offer, Mexican Immigrant Helps Pennsylvania Companies Make Money in Latin America
When Guillermo Velazquez left Mexico at age 26 to take an internship at the World Trade Center Pittsburgh, he actually planned to return home. But within a month he was a offered a job by the Trade Center, which valued his international business background and ability to speak four languages. Read More
Being an Immigrant Makes Adele Dorfner Roth the Perfect Person to Bring International Trade to Ohio
Adele Dorfner Roth shows exactly how a diverse city government can help spur economic growth. She came to the United States from Brazil as a small child when her father, an engineer, was hired by Mohawn, the Akron-based tire company. “He’s a huge risk taker,” Roth says. “Like most immigrants,… Read More
Iraqi Refugee Helps Bring Much-Needed Doctors to Rural Idaho
In 2015, Marwan Sweedan, a former U.S. Army medic and infection control specialist in Boise, Idaho was named a White House Champion of Change. After receiving the honor, he penned a short essay about his work helping fellow refugee and immigrant professionals find employment in the United States. “My efforts… Read More
Weekend Reading: Highlights from this week’s immigration news (May 16-20)
This week Tom Nassif, president and CEO of the Western Growers Association, which represents farmers in California, Arizona, and Colorado, penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, proposing that governors take the lead on immigration reform. “As chief executives,” he writes, “governors know how to get things… Read More
Illinois-based Author and Professor Loves How Her Fellow Christians Have Embraced Their Immigrant Neighbors
A few years ago, when Karen Schreck looked out her bedroom window, she saw an untended garden patch in her backyard wasting away. Then a neighbor asked if she might be willing to open her yard up to a refugee couple from Burundi, who used to farm before they were… Read More
Immigrant Student Lands Dream Job, Leads Alaskan Town’s Economic Revival
Xi Cui received her Master’s from the University of Florida at a time when jobs were scarce. It was 2010, and the country was still struggling from the recession. Cui, who’d come from China to study urban planning, couldn’t find a Florida-based company that could afford to sponsor her work… Read More
Ohio House Candidate Talked Candidly About Need for Immigration Reform
Tom Dunlap spent 18 years in the Huron County Sheriff’s office, including four years as Sheriff. During his career in public service, he’s gotten to know a number of the county’s foreign-born residents. “Over the years many of the migrant farm workers in the muck farm area have stayed and… Read More
This Texas Faith Leader Sees Huge Opportunity Lost When Communities Don’t Welcome New Immigrants
Pat Kelly is the lead pastor at Fredonia Hill Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, Texas. In recent years, the church has seen large influxes of Hispanic and Korean immigrants, as well as Burmese refugees known as the Karen people. When Kelly saw their communities struggling to adjust to life in the… Read More
Language Diversity and the Workforce: The Growing Need for Bilingual Workers in Georgia’s Economy
Gov. Nathan Deal signed H.B. 879 into law, establishing a Seal of Biliteracy program to recognize high school graduates who have attained proficiency in at least one language in addition to English. The bill’s passage coincides with the release of a New American Economy research brief, “Language Diversity and… Read More
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