By Karen Rubin, News-Photos-Features.com
What if the United States and the rest of the nations applied the same concept of capitalism that states use to woo businesses to the world’s people – where people were able to choose where they wanted to live based on the opportunities and quality of life a country offered, instead of people essentially being prisoners of their Motherland?
The immigration crisis in the US and around the world is only a crisis because of the lack of will to fix it.
This was brought home to me during the Clinton Global Initiative, revived after a hiatus of six years, where I once again felt transported into an alternate universe of progress, not just possibility; humanity instead of the cruelty that has seized hold of out-of-the-fringes gaggle of nativists, populists, nationalists looking and sounding horrifyingly like 1930s Nazis (as so stirringly shown in Ken Burns documentary, “The United States and the Holocaust”) and governments around the world shutting off paths of escape.
The most moving and inspiring session, simply themed “Home,” brought home the reality of the global refugee crisis – an explosion 100 million desperate people displaced by war, violence, climate crisis, hunger, poverty - the most since World War II. Climate refugees alone now number 21 million and projected to increase to 200 million by 2050 – showing how the issue of refugees, migration, immigration are inextricably linked with climate, public health, food insecurity, political repression and instability (issues that President Biden raised in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly). People can’t turn a blind eye, or worse, as MAGA Republicans like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott have demonstrated, actively, even extra-judicially, obstruct solutions.
There needs to be an immediate response to catastrophes that force thousands to flee – immediately setting up food, clothing, shelter, medical services; mid-term responses of making some sort of self-sustaining, dignified community with schools, healthcare, and the means to work and contribute; and long-term responses so that these people have the freedom, security and the ability to amass enough wherewithal to make new, productive lives that allow them to fulfill their potential. (A fourth response is doing what the Biden Administration is attempting: address the conditions that are compelling people to leave their homeland.)
There is no reason why these refugee camps can’t be made more like self-sustaining communities – with people continuing to teach, give medical care, have shops, as they did in their home country and why people can’t obtain permits to work so they can bring back money to spend (and taxed). (Immigrants paid $492 billion in federal and other taxes in 2019.)
This is actually happening in some places, creating models for others to follow. Among the most creative and vigorous in this pursuit are the very people whose lives demonstrate the benefits to society when the human potential of immigrants can be unleashed:
Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founder and Chairman of Moderna and Founder and CEO, Flagship Pioneering (a life sciences venture capital company), the grandson of survivors of the Armenian genocide, recalled his own experience at 13 years old fleeing Lebanon’s civil war in 1975 and how it ultimately contributed to his success. “When you have had the experience of being displaced, you are more open to the challenges, the struggle [and thinking outside box].”
“What propels you forward?” Hillary Clinton asked. “Almost losing life is a damn good motivator. I was told 50 years ago, the US is a melting pot. Those words stayed with me. If the whole world can accept refugees, not as others, but make them feel like the majority, let them show the way to new opportunity, take risk, it will inspire ‘native ‘ folks who may have lost that [mindset, energy, interest, motivation].”
It’s a different mindset, he said. For refugees, “home is in the future, not the past – home of the past was taken away. People who are oriented to making the future better than the present are what we need to make better society by definition....Give a chance to survivors who failed to die, to revive, to establish a new life. After that, they don’t need a lot of help.”
Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO and Founder of Chobani, is another. He founded Tent Partnership for Refugees after attending an earlier CGI, which is dedicated to hiring and training refugees in the Chobani plants he establishes (including New York), and recruiting other companies to do the same. An event he just held resulted in companies committing to hire 23,000 in the US–among them Tyson Foods, Hilton, Marriott, Pfizer, Amazon. “We have 260 large multinational companies in our network actively hiring, training, advocating for refugees.”
Another company actively engaged in improving lives for refugees – and their host country, - is Ikea, which is actively helping alleviate Jordan’s substantial burden in hosting one million Syrian refugees.
“The country has to feel that helping refugees doesn’t come at own cost but helps the host country,” Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan said. “Ikea created thousands of jobs for Syrian and Jordanian women, which has transformed the lives of hundreds families. It is a powerful testament to impact of intersection of multinational company and local NGO. We couldn’t have done it without Ikea”.
“Ikea is built on humanistic values,” said Jesper Brodin, CEO, Ingka Group, Ikea. “We can only be true to our mission to be for everybody in the value chain. We set up a girl’s school in Pakistan. It’s been foundational, ever since. We are very active in refugee situations.After the immediate response to the acute situation, how do you create jobs? We get incredible reward seeing the motivation of people.”
Of the Fortune 500 companies, 102 were founded by immigrants and 117 more by children of immigrants. Nearly 3.2 million immigrants run their own businesses employing many more millions at neighborhood stores, restaurants, professional services.
A humane way of handling refugees, migrants, immigrants, emigres is “good for society but also good for business,” said Ulukaya.
But while it doesn’t take long to convince CEOs to support refugees and immigration, “one of biggest obstacle for companies is how the topic used politically in very unpleasant way.”
The breakdown, said David Miliband, President and CEO, International Rescue Committee, is the shameful reaction of governments to the refugee crisis.
A country like Albania, which lost 3 million in a “brain drain” after Communists took over and now is trying to rebuild its economy based on a capitalist model, could have benefited enormously by inviting Syrian refugee families to establish new communities, which would have sparked economic revitalization as well as international support.
Instead, “Governments are retreating from solutions. It takes private sector to come up with solutions, persuade governments to come in,” Miliband said.
Private companies could be the innovators, adapting the systems they already have in place. Walmart, Target – both with philanthropic foundations – and Amazon to set up disaster relief funds and source, store and then distribute essential supplies. So when a California community has to flee wildfires, a Pakistan community has to flee flooding, a Ukrainian community has to flee Russian bombs, a Puerto Rican or Florida community has to flee hurricane, they can get a sense of how many men, women, boys and girls are displaced, what the climate is like where they are sheltering, and send boxes of clothing, toiletries and essentials (they know how to do that with their online shopping).
Apple, Microsoft, IBM can supply i-pads, i-phones so displaced people can continue online education, access telemedicine, do e-commerce, and stay informed.
Solar power and battery companies can supply portable energy supplies (it’s vitally important for security to keep lights on).
Financial services companies like Mastercard, Visa and American Express can assist displaced people to set up e-commerce businesses, provide micro-loans to families (isn’t that what credit is?) at low or zero interest to give a leg up (as Matt Damon noted about water.org, 99 percent of the micro-loans his organization gives out so people can obtain clean drinking water are repaid.)
Mastercard, in fact, is applying some of its products to crisis situations and people who need it, related Jody Barnett, Head of Global Cities & Transit and Mobility for Mastercard. In Ukraine, it is offering a Star Path acceleration program for startups.
“Cities know how they benefit from immigrants,” she said. “Even these last six years when we saw toxicity in national politics to refugees, citizens in localities have been innovating inclusive practices that enable refugees to make their economic and social contributions as soon as possible – where have state and local leaders moving in the opposite direction of national politics.”
Indeed, Welcome.US, was launched a year ago in direct response to the urgency to resettle Afghans escaping the Taliban, to empower a broader range of ordinary Americans to assist resettling refugees. “Refugees need goods and services, but also friends and neighbors,” said Nazanin Ash, CEO.
The organization, now with 800 community partners in its network, has helped resettle 80,000 Afghan refugees within six months, when the government system the previous year accepted only 11,000 refugees, and now Ukrainians. In just 5 months, Americans signed up to sponsor more refugees than the whole of government admitted in the last 5 years combined.”
Welcome.US made its new CGI commitment to engage 50,000 Americans to help sponsor 100,000 refugees over the next three years.
“We will help create a model of resettlement nested in our communities who can best provide welcome, a sense of belonging so essential for success of our new neighbors, who come seeking same ideals that unite us as Americans – safety, freedom, the right to self determination. We have to do our part. We can and must do more, and if we engage the whole of our society we will. That’s what this moment calls us to do,” Ash said.
The fact that 2 million asylum-seekers have presented themselves to US border officials shows that the Biden Administration is doing what they can to secure the border. And they are doing their level best sending judges and social services where needed, assisting people resettle until their case can be heard. The Biden Administration is trying to do what it can to expedite the time, which now can take 2-5 years.
The immigration issue – an intentional crisis drummed up by Republicans as a weapon in the culture wars for the past 40 years – can and must be resolved.
Instead, Republicans are doing their best to undermine the process, “own the libs” with outrageous, cruel and illegal stunts (Florida Governor Ron DeSantis didn’t just traffic in human beings who are legally allowed to seek asylum, he abused his office, misappropriated millions of dollars which somehow went into the pockets of his cronies.)
Those 11 million undocumented individuals who have been in this country for decades, including 8 million DACA (Dreamers) recipients, are only unauthorized because they have never had a process to give them legal status. While the adults deserve to be interviewed and evaluated for obtaining some kind of legal residency and work documents, the Dreamers, their children who have only known the United States as their country, should have a path to citizenship.
And the United States has a legal obligation – both internationally and by US law – to provide the tens of thousands claiming asylum a proper hearing. Already, only 15 percent apparently are given asylum; a giant proportion of individuals are returned.
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