Immigrant Promise Event: Drive and Innovation
May 4, 2021
This blog post was written by Jacob Frazier. Jacob is the blog editor with the Alhambra US Chamber.
On February 20th, Parag Mehta, the Executive Director and Senior Vice President of the philanthropic arm of Mastercard, participated in Alhambra U.S. Chamber’s Immigrant Promise Event. The Q&A focused around the economic, cultural, and political effects of letting new people into a country, while also discussing ways to deal with the recent political backlash against immigration. The discussion was a worthy addition to the Chamber’s Q&A sessions and a strong argument in favor of immigration.
Parag’s session started by examining immigration through immigrants’ own perspective and economic and cultural motives to move to the United States. He said that immigrants often see their second homelands through rose-colored glasses because, ultimately, they are the ones who chose to move there. This means they have a deep hope and determination to help those places succeed. Parag believes implicitly in America’s economic system and its opportunities for people seeking a new life, and his faith in the system gives him a reason to work every day to make a good life for himself.
It also motivates him to open doors for other ambitious people—he recounted one memorable story in which he visited India and met a young boy with an oversized work ethic, who might outpace anyone he knew from America if given the same advantages. Immigrants, like everyone else, are naturally driven to improve their own lives, and when the economy gives them the chance to do so, like it does in the United States, they take the chance and run with it.
In a capitalist system like that of the United States, people earn money through transactions, either between a customer and a company or a worker and a company. Parag emphasized the ways immigrants improve the economy, helping both native-born Americans and other immigrants succeed. They form networks with other immigrants to help one another achieve highly, and studies show that work rates among immigrants, both skilled and unskilled, are incredibly high. This supports Parag’s theory that immigrants have an implicit hope in the country they migrate to and a desire to take advantage of the hope it offers. They produce goods and services that people need to live good lives as workers, pay taxes on their earnings, and purchase goods in turn that continue to move the economy forward.
The innovative thinking that immigrants can bring is also valuable in government—there is a campaign designed to bring young immigrant leaders into local government on school boards and city councils to create a new generation of leaders. According to Parag, the fact that immigrants come from two or more distinct cultures gives them a unique perspective on problem-solving in business and government. They help themselves when they migrate and help the places they migrate to by working and creating jobs through their work ethic and flexibility.
Parag finally addressed the concerns of native-born Americans who feel displaced by immigrants. He acknowledged that the issues faced by those who make this argument, many of whom are white Americans, are deep and meaningful issues that need to be solved. But he argues that rather than immigration, the real culprit is weakened unions and decreased government support for those in need. Given more economic opportunity, everyone including immigrants could find and create better jobs in fields that have not even been discovered yet, but the government is failing to pass the policies that would enable everyone to thrive.
The question of immigration is a central issue of our time, and it will be relevant as long as there are people to travel the Earth. We may never fully understand it, but we can give it our best shot. The Immigrant Promise series may return in future months with speakers from various walks of life to illuminate the immigrant experience in the US and the politics surrounding it. Please join us in the event of another engaging Q&A! If you are interested in other sessions held by the Alhambra US Chamber, please visit the Spotlights page on our website!
