Events Archive
Immigration Reform Topic Draws Record Attendance
On Monday, January 23, 2006, the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians hosted more than 170 people from government, the media, academia, and public and private constituencies in Philadelphia. The presentations were passionate and important to the future of the region.
“Immigration laws are so out of step with the reality that we drive an ordinary dynamic process underground,” said Frank Sharry, Executive Director of Immigration Forum and seminar panelist, in his opening remarks.
The panel was brought together to discuss the recent legislation passed by the House of Representatives and which will come before the Senate later this year.
“It (2005) was a remarkable year of organizing and advocacy. Immigrant communities, religious leaders, and business and labor organizations began to raise their voices for a more realistic way of managing and regulating immigration,” said Sharry. “…However, Supreme Court nominations and other business delayed Senate action until next year.”
He continued, “In the meantime, the House leadership responded to organizing and advocacy of a different sort. Egged on by the simplistic protests of talk radio hosts, talk television hosts, and Minutemen, the House leadership went first. Intentionally ignoring calls from responsible leaders in both chambers, in both parties, and from the White House, House leaders deliberately kept any hint of comprehensive reform from being considered. Instead, they passed the harshest piece of enforcement-only, anti-immigration legislation in seventy years.”
Immigration is a humanitarian issue. But its impact on economic development is critical, pressing, and too often ignored.
“Let’s start with the economy,” said Tamar Jacoby, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. “I think that those who say we don’t need immigrants have their heads buried in the sand. Their claim may have been true 45 years ago when half of all American men did not finish high school and became unskilled laborers. But today less than 10 percent of American men drop out of high school - and, paradoxically, our increasingly automated service economy is more dependent than ever on low-skilled workers. The baby-boom generation is retiring from the workforce, and native-born fertility rates are in decline. The problem isn’t just that Americans don’t want to work out in the fields or up on roofs in the hot sun; employers can’t pay them enough to make that kind of job worthwhile for most people. The real problem is that there aren’t enough native-born workers to sustain the industries that rely on unskilled labor - from agriculture to food-processing to health care to construction - much less fuel the growth of the growth of these sectors, or related ones.”
The expert panel included:
• Moderator, J. Whyatt Mondesire, Publisher of the Sunday Sun and President of the NAACP.
• Frank Sharry, the Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum
• Tamar Jacoby, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
• Stanley Straughter, Chair, Mayor’s Commission on African and Caribbean Affairs; Board Member, Nationalities Service Center.
• David Oh, Immigration Attorney and Community Activist; Board Member, Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians.
“Immigration is an issue that affects everyone,” says Anne O’Callaghan, Executive Director of The Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians. “It is critical for individuals to understand the importance of immigration and its impact on our lives, in terms of both our cultural lives and economic standing. This seminar is an important step in educating the Philadelphia Region about the influence that immigration has had, and will continue to have, on our future.”
Held at the Constitution Center, this seminar was the second in a series of public policy seminars sponsored by the Welcoming Center. It was funded in part by the William Penn Foundation and partners in the event included: Catholic Social Services, Congreso, HIAS and Council Migration Service, Nationalities Service Center, Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition, and United Communities.