JobMakers Pioneer Institute and the Immigrant Learning Center

This week on JobMakers, host Denzil Mohammed interviews Lindsay Milliken. Milliken underscores the current unprecedented combination of low unemployment and high job openings, particularly in sectors like hospitality, healthcare, and education. She addresses the vital role immigrants play in the workforce, and advocates for leveraging Schedule A, a regulation that expedites the green card process for occupations facing high labor demand. Milliken co-authored an op-ed in the Salt Lake Tribune that proposes updating Schedule A to reflect contemporary demands and streamline the immigration process, pointing to Utah as a positive example of state-level immigrant integration.

This week on Jobmakers, host Denzil Mohammed interviews Natalia Frois, a Brazilian immigrant and CEO of International Business Relations in Massachusetts. She discusses how she supports immigrants and Hispanic entrepreneurs by offering classes, resources, and English education, drawing on her trilingual skills and personal experience. Frois shares how her mission aids business success and community integration.

This week on Jobmakers, host Denzil Mohammed interviews Brad Brown, owner of Blue Frog Bakery in Jamaica Plain. Mr. Brown, an immigrant entrepreneur, discusses his arrival in the U.S., the founding and growth of Blue Frog Bakery, favorite products, community engagement, and the broader impact of immigration in their neighborhood and beyond.

The United States is built on all kinds of immigrants with all kinds of skills and experiences. While politicians might have us believe immigration is a divisive issue, the fact is Americans across the political spectrum agree at least on this: High-skilled immigrants are good for the country, and we need more of them. For Dr. Adam Ozimek, formerly of Moody’s Analytics and now Chief Economist at the Economic Innovation Group, a bipartisan public policy group in Washington D.C. working toward a more dynamic and inclusive economy, not only is immigration economic development itself, but immigration policy is also innovation policy.

Immigrants move for many reasons, and sometimes it can be a matter of life or death if they don’t uproot. But no matter where they’re from, they enrich the cultural landscape of this country while enjoying the freedom and protection the U.S. offers. Sebastian Corbat came to the U.S. for life-saving treatment, and post-op therapy gave him both a new lease on life and a business idea: We should all have access to healthy, organic and tasty foods. So Sebastian went about helping his communities eat healthily with the empanadas he grew up preparing in his mother’s kitchen.

The premise of this podcast is that immigrants are job makers. But does this bear out in the data? Prof. Benjamin F. Jones, former economic advisor in the U.S. Treasury and the White House and now Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy at the Kellog School of Management at Northwestern University, shows that not only do the data show that immigrants are far more likely to start a business in the U.S., they are also innovating at a higher rate that benefits the nation.