The executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, Eva Millona, aims to bring businesses of all forms in Massachusetts to her fight to have a voice when Congress works on immigration reform next year.
MIRA will launch the Massachusetts Business Coalition on Immigration this week. Over a dozen companies have contributed $15,000 dollars. This money is in addition to the $20,000 originally given by the United Way of Massachusetts Bay.
Millona’s goal is to have 200 corporate members join the coalition.
The idea to start the coalition earlier this year was spurred by similar action in other states, including Illinois. The issues that would be addressed are numerous, including paths to legal residency for those with Temporary Protected Status.
The Mass Technology Leadership Council has already begun looking to address this issue before the coalition. Millona is looking to widen the diversity and get all different kinds of businesses to join the discussion.
Approximately 1 in 5 workers in Massachusetts is foreign-born. Unemployment in the state is down and thus they need more people to fill jobs in their booming employment force.
The HYM Investment Group’s Tom O’Brien sees helping to address the immigration issues and seek reform as a way to continue Greater Boston’s advantage in business. The Boston developer says that in his opinion, finding talent in other countries and bringing that talent to America to work and participate gives the United States the upperhand.
CEO, George Matouk, of John Matouk & Co. (the Fall River linens manufacturer) explains that his grandfather who started the company in 1929 was a Syrian immigrant. First-generation immigrants make up half of Matouk’s workforce.
To many businesses in Massachusetts and the United States as a whole, immigration reform is not just an issue of social justice, but it makes for good business.
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